The Last Happy Ending
by Miss Lyla
Summary: AU.The curse was broken and everyone s happy endings were restored including Emma Swan s.It s just that her happy ending was restored in a more unusual way.After all, you can t bring the dead back but you can stop them from dying
1. Can t get no love without sacrifice

_A/N:_So, the lack of Gremma fics in this fandon is such a sad thing that it even prompt me to try to write there is a reason that I don´t write fanfic anymore since my high school days but I do have time at the moment since my semester in uni won´t start till november(It was supposed to start at the end of august but long story short the school decided to start in middle november).

Basically,it´s more than a one-short but I really don´t think that I´ll write more then 10 chapthers,it´s also season 2 spoiler-free in the sense that when I had the idea it was still july and we didn´t have that many OUAT spoilers anyway.

This story is un-beta since I don´t really have a beta so had to do all the editing(and english isn´t my first language so there´s bound to be some errors I guess).Of course,if for some crazy reason someone wants to beta this please send me a message!

It was first posted on Tumblr,by the I would really love to hear your thoughts in this so be so kind and leave a review,ok?The song used in this chapther is Happy Ending by Mika.

I don´t own OUAT.

* * *

**Prologue**

_Two o'clock in the morning,  
Someone's on my mind,  
Can't get no rest,  
Keep walking around,_

If I pretend that nothing ever went wrong,  
I can get to my sleep I can dream now and just carry on?

Most girls grow up believing in the Tooth Fairy, writing letters to Santa and waiting for their Prince Charming. Those are the little girls that watched the Disney movies, had the fairytales read to them as bed time stories and dressed themselves as princesses at least once on Halloween. Emma Swan was never one of those girls.

There are the kids who lost themselves in books to forget the awful reality they live in. Those are the kids who lived between wizards and witches, elves, fairies, gnomes, intergalactic travelers, superheroes, werewolves, vampires and aliens. Emma Swan was never one of those kids.

She lived in reality, for more painful that it was, without wishing on stars or imagining different worlds. She never believed in magic or happy endings or wait awake at night waiting for an old bearded man in red with presents for the good kids.

And in the end, the child who accepted her place in this world and never imagined something out of this realm was the one who didn´t belong in it. The child, who truly was a princess, and not any princess but the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, was also the only one able to break a powerful curse because she was magic herself.

It´s ironic and also a little bit sad because maybe if the savior liked to read books, even if just a little, or had believed in magic during her childhood she would accept the reality of the curse sooner.

"You´re gonna bring back the happy endings!"- That was what her son had said. Henry might have been right about the curse but he was wrong about her bringing the happy endings back. It´s true that everyone in town now remember who they are and that families were brought back together (She has a family now. And it´s complicated and confusing and just honest-to-God fucked-up but it´s still her family. They exist and they love her.) But that still doesn´t mean that Emma brought back the happy endings. Because there´s someone missing the celebration for the break of the curse.

And the sad thing is she waited for someone to realize it. During three days after the purple smoke rolled into town and Regina apparently disappear with it she waited for someone, for _anyone_, to show up and question her why she didn´t saved him. But no one did. Emma watched as loved ones and families were reunited (Kathr- Abigail and Frederick had a reunion like one see in the movies with spinning around and a long kiss with tears of joy) all the time in the most different places being in front of Mr. Gold´s(Rumplestinskin, that is his name. His real name for more absurd that it sounds.)Shop, in the pharmacy, on the middle of the avenue and even in the church.

So that´s why on the third day after the curse was broken, Emma Swan found herself locked in the sheriff station at night reading Henry´s book. If asked she could say she was gathering information, it was common knowledge that the Evil Queen wouldn´t go down without a fight and knowledge is power after all. Emma could also say that she chose the station because being in Mary Marg- Snow´s apartment was not only awkward but crowded with the four Charming family´s members living there. But it would not be the truth.

She found what she was looking for in her mother´s story. The drawing of the Huntsman was a little alike but it was the passage that said that his companion was a wolf, a wolf with one red eye, which caught her attention. The wolf that was responsible for her crashing in the Storybrooke´s signal and that she last saw it in a cemetery.

The Huntsman. That was Graham´s counterpart in the Fairy Tale Land. It was oddly fitting in a sad tragic way. The man who had give up his heart to spare Snow White´s one( a woman that he had meet only once in his entire life so far but that he feels didn´t deserve to die.) was the one who end up stealing her daughter´s heart.

And in the quiet and darkness of the sheriff´s station, Emma could admit, even if just for herself and not aloud, that she had fallen in love with him. And that he was murdered.

The Queen had crushed his heart when Graham chose her. Emma knew that now. It had been weird for a healthy guy´s heart stop so suddenly but the autopsy said that it was a heart attack and at the time which other explanation could have?

"You don´t play with the curse." Her son´s voice reaches her and she remembers how at the time she didn´t want to consider that possibility. It was not that she thought Regina incapable of murder but Emma couldn´t think that she had a hand on the sheriff´s death because otherwise she didn´t knew what she was capable of doing to the mayor.

And maybe it was better that Regina had disappeared when she had otherwise Emma didn´t think she would be able of not murdering her (And God, Henry was right again. It was so difficult to be good!), turning that organ that should be the Queen´s heart, but that Emma was sure was stone, into dust.

**/-\**

When she closes the book after reading how Graham had insured her existence yet again by helping her father escape the Queen´s castle she noticed that she had been in the station for close to four hours now. She still hadn´t read all of the Huntsman´s story, Emma was quite sure that he helped her parents more than two times, but it was late and her cell phone already had eight messages(Two from Henry, four from Snow, one from James and one extremely awkward and wince-induced from Aug- Pinocchio) and her tears had finally stopped.

But she wasn´t ready to leave yet. Making a quick decision she grabs the black leather jacket-and here she stopped for a moment feeling its texture and remembering Gold´s insistence for her to take it- she puts on herself. After reading about Belle and chipped teacups she felt a kinship for Rumplestinskin that she didn´t thought possible before. And no small amount of envious as well, Belle is alive and Graham isn´t. It´s not that she wishes the girl to be dead but Mr. Gold thought that she was dead, he mourned her and in the end he got her back. He got his happy ending along the rest of the residents of this once cursed town.

It´s already quite dark outside but it´s not so late and she needs to clear her mind before going back to the cramped loft and be forced to deal with more feelings. She had always wanted a family and now she has one but she´s not used to it. It´s plain awkward most of the time without counting the whole fairytale factor and the fact that her parents are practically the same age as her.

So she decides to do organize the sheriff´s station a little (and try not to think of how cleaning is what Mary Margaret used to do when she attempted to calm herself) just to control her emotions. Emma´s plan backfired in a horrible way when she found an envelope and opened. Because what was inside was a letter. A letter that begin with Dear Emma in a handwrite that she hadn´t see in a long time but could never forget. Graham´s handwrite.

When she comes to the "my great wish" part the tears come back. Emma thought that after reading Henry´s book she had shed all the possible tears but she was proven wrong. Again. She wanted to hate Graham for all the pain he keep causing her but then the blonde remembers that he didn´t want to die, he didn´t chose to leave her, that it was out of his control. At times like this a tiny voice in her head that sound suspiciously like Mary Margaret (her best friend Mary Margaret not her mother Snow White who is at the same time so alike and so different than the school teacher) whispers that she could never hate Graham.

In the end, all the pain and suffer of her life can be traced back to one person: The Evil Queen. Why she took so long to believe that Regina was an evil witch is still beyond her even if it hurts her heart to think that a woman like that was the one that raised her son, she should notice sooner. It´s than that she reads the signature at the bottom(Yours, Graham)and Emma spares Regina only one more fleeting thought(That killing her would be too kind. The mayor needs to suffer .A LOT) before her mind starts to replay all her moments with Graham and try to guess when he writed that letter.

It was during the time she was avoiding him? Or it was when they start to became friends over paper work, drinks at Granny´s and eating take out in the station? It couldn´t be before she was even made his deputy, right? Although if she had to admit there had always been something between then since that first conversation outside Regina´s house. If it was anyone else leaning against her bug and stopping her from effectively run away Emma wouldn´t have start chatting(I´m Graham by the way. Emma).

Thinking about that night makes her realize that their banter-slight-flirting-thing had also always been there from the very start and it was so natural that she only noticed when her roommate told her that it was obvious that she had feelings for her boss. Emma didn´t get involved with bosses or involved man anymore but the sheriff was different and she did get more than just involved with him. She felt for him even if the admission only came at the least minute.

While reading the letter Emma Swan sat down again in the chair and before she noticed she end up falling sleep wrapped up on Graham´s jacket, holding his letter in one hand and with a tear striked face. And when she wakes up…well, that´s when our story begins.


	2. Full of hurricanes and uncertainty

_A/N:So sorry for the delay. There´s an explanation and further information at the end of the chapter. Just want to thanks my wonderful beta EvelynRose for all the work she did. Disclaimer is in the prologue. And the song in this chapter is You make it real by James Morrison._

Chapter One: Full of hurricanes and uncertainty.

_And I'm running to you baby__  
__you are the only one who save me __  
__that's why I've been missing you lately __  
__'Cause you make it real for me__Everybody's talking in words __  
__I don't understand __  
__you got to be the only one __  
__who knows just who I am__  
__and you shine in the distance __  
__I hope I can make it through__  
__'cause the only place __  
__that I want to be __  
__is right back home with you_

Emma Swan was never a crier. She didn´t cry when she was seven and the older kids stolen her lunch money. She didn´t cry when Tom Forester called her a bitch and punched her on the face. She didn´t cry on the mother´s day parties at any of her elementary schools. She didn´t cry when she was thirteen and found Logan Jacobs making out with Lana Deveraux behind a tree in the park. She didn´t cry when she was twenty and her landlord kicked her out of her apartment effectively leaving her homeless .She didn´t cry when she realized that West Rickson wouldn´t leave his wife. She didn´t cry when she first was held at gun point. She didn´t cry when she was twenty-five and Paul Ritches choose Hannah Sullivan.

Before Storybrooke, Emma had cried a total of two times since she was three years old and was given back to the system. The first time was when she was eighteen and had to give up her baby for adoption after having him for only a day. The second time was when she was twenty-two and found out that her solid lead to her parents was not so solid after all. Not only were the Whites not her parents, they had already found their daughter. The girl named Allison who was only a few years younger than her, but it was the sight of Jared, her four year old little boy clad in spider-man pajamas with big green eyes, and how all the four of them were a happy family that broke her down.

In Emma´s opinion whoever said that crying was good for the soul was completely insane. Crying didn´t make the pain go away and it didn´t make her feel better after. Quite often after crying Emma normally found herself with the mother of all headaches.

So the dull pain in her head was not a surprise to Emma, but other things certainly were. Her neck wasn´t stiffen and she didn´t feel any aches that come with you falling sleep at a desk. The most importance difference though was the absence of the comfortable smell. Emma remembers that she cried herself till sleep while she was wearing Graham´s jacket so his smell (She had never understand why he always smelled like pine and musk) was supposed to be around her. That realization, more than anything was what made her open her eyes and jump of the bed.

The jumping did no wonders to her headache or her confusion. It wasn´t like she didn´t recognize the room, it was the room in the Inn that she had stayed when she first come into town. The other strange thing was that she was just in a white sleeveless blouse and in her underwear.

Hoping that this was not another kidnapping situation since her current attire creep her out a little she try to retrace her steps. Reading Henry´s book in the closed station at night. The Huntsman´s story. Graham´s jacket. Cleaning to clear her mind. Graham´s letter. Crying. And then she couldn´t remember anything anymore. The knocking started when she was still trying to recollect so it was a brow furrowed, holding her head with her hand and extremely confused Emma that answered the door.

Outside the door was the least person she thought she would see in that situation: The Evil Queen. And not only that but she was carrying a basket full of apples. Déjà vu much? Regina was talking but Emma´s mind was kind of disconnected thanks to the realization that she already heard that same speech before and for the fact that the woman she entertained plans of murder/torture last night is in front of her smiling.

"…And to this day I have yet to taste anything more delicious then the fruit it offers."

Hell no! After that turnover Emma is pretty sure she will never be able to eat apples in any shape or form again specially ones given to her by her mother´s evil stepmother .Even if this is just a hallucination/dream.

"Thanks but no, after someone try to poison me with an apple turnover I developed a healthy hate for that fruit."

Regina´s eyebrow rose slowly but she gives no other indication of the subtle indirect the blonde thrower at her. If the bails bond is correct in her asses the mayor seems more intrigued by that then anything.

"Very well. I can guarantee you, Miss Swan, that I didn´t poisoned these apples but if you don´t want them it´s all right. I just thought you would have liked to enjoy them on your drive home."

The small sarcastic smile on the blonde appeared with the affirmation that she didn´t poisoned the basket of apples and was still there by the end of the Queen´s speech.

"I think, Madam Mayor that it would be obvious by now that I have no intention of going back."

For as much as Emma didn´t knew what the hell was happening(a dream, a hallucination provoked by crying her heart out or a coma induced by some psycho) and as much as she wanted to at the very least punch that woman on the face she couldn´t. Well, not until she has an idea of what´s going on anyway. For now she will say the lines, with just little insignificant modifications, those she remembers saying before, keeping up with the original script, so to speak.

Regina´s eyes narrowed just a little. "I don´t really see why. It´s what is best after all."

Emma pursed her lips. "What is best for whom? You? Because I´m sure it´s not what is best for Henry.

Emma´s _damn sure_ it´s not what is best not only for Henry but for everyone as well. Everyone except Regina, of course. It´s in the Mayor´s best interest to have Emma out of her cursed town.

"Miss Swan, I admit that Henry is passing thought some difficulties but it´s a phase and it´s already been take care of"

"What does that even means?"

"It means I have him in therapy .It spiraled out of control." Regina´s voice had that hint of smugness the blonde had caught it the first time and also something that at the time she couldn't detect but that now, after having to deal with the mayor many times before, she could name it. Deception. "Take my advice, Miss Swan, only one of us knows what´s best for him"

"Oh! I would never disagree with that"

"It´s time for you to go" That threat didn´t worked out before and it certainly wouldn´t worked now that Emma knows the truth.

"Or what?"

"Don´t underestimate me, Miss Swan." That hint of smugness was back. It seems that 28 years had managed to make the Evil Queen forget about all the losses she suffered and give her an unrealistic sense of invincibility. An unrealistic sense of invincibility that had already been fatal once. "You have no idea what I´m capable of."

"On the contraire, Madam Mayor" In her mind, Emma was remembering all of her plans of murder and/or torture that she devise and perfected in 3 days. "It´s you who has no idea what I´m capable of."

/-\

One thing that made Emma Swan such a good bails bond person was her ability to stay calm in dreary situations. If you asked her she would say that recently that ability of hers was sorely tested in the form of having her kid in a coma thanks to an apple turnover, finding out that her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming, seeing a man turn to wood in front of her eyes, talking about a quest to find magic with Rumpelstiltskin and the Evil Queen, and let´s not forget the whole fighting a dragon with a sword thing. She just never thought that to that extremely weird list she would add time travel.

After Regina left she searched for her phone only to found out that according to it the date was the 26 of October of 2011. And that was when her head started to hurt again. The stop to buy some Advil didn´t helped because not only the weather what someone would expect from autumn and not spring but Mr. Clark was Mr. Clark again (Until yesterday, Emma thought it was weird that he started to talk to her like an uncle would but today she realized that it was weirder that he treated her like some stranger).

While walking through town she realized that from all her three theories, time travel was her best bet. Everything seems too realistic and detailed to be a dream but that didn´t rule that explanation out yet. Theoretically, people in coma have really realistic and detailed dream so for all she knows that could be the case. That this is all a hallucination appears to be the less "logical" theory because why the hell she would hallucinate about her second day in Storybrooke? Which leads to the conclusion that she somehow traveled to the past?

Sometimes the simple explanation it´s the right one after all. And yes that may sound improbable but that purple smoke that Mr. Gold brought to town manage to bring magic back to Storybrooke, so anything was possible now in Emma´s view. That and it was more comforting to think that she was doing a McFly than to believe she finally went crazy and start to hallucinate, or was in a coma.

There was also the fact that while walking she spotted a little school girl in pig tails. What brought new meaning to the word weird was that Emma somehow knew that a red haired boy would appear running and would pull one of the pig tails and run away laughing. She was sure she didn´t knew these kids but she had already seen that scene unfold once.

The growl on her stomach makes her decide to go to Granny´s to eat some breakfast and the copy of the newspaper that she bought on her way seems to confirm her time travel theory (That it was still a theory. She could be wrong so no use freaking out about that. _Yet_.).

When she´s about to open the door to the dinner she see something through the glass door that makes her freeze on the spot. Her eyes immediately go back to her newspaper and while a part of her mind is busying noticing that Sidney decided to post the most awful of her mugshots on the article another part is repeating the same phrase over and over again in a more hysterical tone as time passes (_Graham is here. Graham is here. Graham is here. Graham is here_.).And then she does the one thing she had always been good at. She runs.

Emma doesn't really go that far, she ran till she found a tree where she braced herself against it and try to stop her heart from jumping out of her rib cage and the stringing of tears. She just saw Graham sitting on a table in Granny´s drinking coffee like he hadn´t died _in her arms_ after Regina crushed his heart.

_Because Emma_, she thinks to herself_, if you somehow traveled to the past it didn´t happen yet. _And it´s true, if she´s really found herself back in the past, none of it happened. Graham never died. But that also means that they aren´t even friends (yet) and that he´s still a slave to the Queen because Regina still has his heart locked up in a box.

It´s the first time since theorizing that she time traveled that Emma figures the full implications of the phenomenon. She could save Graham. She could break the curse without Henry having to die. She could stop Regina from even trying to frame Mary Margaret. Hell, she could make sure that the whole David/Mary/Kathryn mess never even happens.

_And you could also break the space time continuum or whatever_. She thinks to herself, with her luck it´s something very probable. She´s not sure if her theory is right though, and even if it isn´t that still doesn´t change the fact that the man she loves is alive right now (She try not to think that even if there´s the possibility that the space time continuum is broken, she would still try to save him. She knows that she couldn´t stop herself from trying even if she should.).

So Emma takes deep breaths and steel herself to go back to the dinner while furiously trying to remember what happened this day (something other than her talks with the sheriff. That she remembers far too well) and end ups so focused on the task at hand that is surprised when Ruby puts a mug of hot cocoa with cinnamon in front of Emma.

"Here you go"

Different from her confrontation with Regina the blonde knows her lines to that scene very well.

"Thank you. But I didn´t order that"

"Yeah, I know." Ruby´s grin was positively wolfish. Emma wonders if the waitress was trying to set her up and had a brief moment of panic with the thought that people could see she had feelings for Graham that far back. "You have an admirer."

The turning back to look at Graham was reflexive. He was staring fixedly at his cup of coffee and she wondered momentary on what he was thinking before turning to give Ruby what she hopes is a passable smile and start walking in his direction.

"Ah, so you decided to stay."

Till now Emma didn´t realized how much she had missed his voice. No one in Storybrooke had that accent. She had to make a conscious effort to not let her mind wander to dangerous thoughts (_Thank you_) or she would probably throw herself in his arms while crying uncontrollable.

"Observant. Important for a cop." His brows frowned a little and she worries. Emma´s sure that was what she said the first time and that frowning his browns was not his reaction. Graham end up being surprisingly good at reading her but he couldn´t already had that ability this early on, right?

That expression stays in his face only for a fleeting moment and before the savior can blink he has returned to normal. "It´s good news for our tourist business, bad news to our local signage" The sheriff says, while shaking his head a little.

_God, how pathetic is it that I even missed his awful jokes?_ The blonde thinks to herself and have to suppress the smile that threats to appear when she remembers how fond the sheriff was (is?) of telling really bad jokes.

Her lack of an answer seems to prompt him to say something. "It´s…It´s a joke." and seeing that Emma was still looking at him with a you´re-such-a-dork face he attempts to explain himself again. "Because you ran over our sign?"

When he first told her that Emma didn´t smiled even if she thought that the sheriff was an adorable dork. The second time around she didn´t have the same restrain and the small but genuinely smile that appeared seems to have surprised and pleased Graham.

"You really need to work on your jokes." That was something that she used to say to him at least once a week after they start work together.

"Well," He reclined a little and gave her a small, pleased smile. "I made you smile, didn´t I?"

She missed the banter as well. To be truthful what hadn´t she missed about him?

"Your idea of what´s funny made me smile not the joke itself"

"Really?" One of his eyebrows rose challenging and she felt herself smiling even more if that was possible. Until she remembered that she must keep herself to the script (for now) till she found out about what´s really going on.

Shaking her head a little to despair some thoughts the blonde continue to talk. "Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture_." And if you ever want to do something like that in the future I will accept_. "And I´m impressed that you guessed that I liked cinnamon on my chocolate, because most people don´t but…" This time Emma couldn´t say that she wasn´t there to flirt so a little improvisation was at order. "You didn´t sent me this, did you?"

And when Graham shakes his head as no her son makes his presence know. "I did. I like cinnamon too."

If it was anyone else effectively interrupting her conversation with the sheriff Emma would be very annoyed indeed .But it´s her son(who she loves and who miraculously loves her too) and since finding that today was the 26 of October she had waited for a moment to talk with him about it.

"Kid, don´t you have school?"

"Duh! I´m ten. Walk me."

"Ok. Just…" She turns back to Graham and her heart aches a little with the thought of leaving him. But she tells herself that she´ll see him later, when he go arrest her again. "Say, sheriff…do you like hot cocoa?"

Graham eyes her a little apprehensive and Emma has to hold back the laughter when she see it. "Yes, I do." Only a beat later he says in the same hesitant tone. "Why?"

"Then you can have mine." She smiles at him while putting the cup on his table and then starts to walk out of the dinner with Henry following. "Hope you like cinnamon too!"

While walking away Emma noticed the curious expression in Henry´s face and decides that it was safest to redirect his train of thought to more serious matters.

"So, I get that this town is cursed…"She begging to say that but was interrupted by her son who started to babble rather anxiously.

"I knew you would never believe me at first, if you did it wouldn´t be a very good story but I have proof!" He opened his school bag and took the final pages of the book out of it and handed then to Emma. "See these pages? Your mom is Snow White. If you read them you…"

"Slow down, kid! I do believe you."

Henry´s eyes wide a little and the confusion in his voice is hard to miss it. "You do?"

" ages people have been walking around in a haze, not aging, with screw up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious." Internally the blonde was cringing at the words she said. It was true but that doesn´t mean it didn´t sound absurd especially when you voice it aloud.

"Yeah...did you read the book when I left it in your car?"Even while asking it the boy´s voice sounded doubtful.

"No, I didn´t..." How does one say I know because I came from the future without looking completely crazy in the process? "I...Henry, what is supposed to happen when the curse is broken?"

"Everyone gets their happy endings back and..." Here he stops talking and scrunch up his face in a way that oddly remembers her of Snow White, her mother. Henry´s grandmother. "Well, the book doesn´t say exactly that we go back to the Enchanted Forest but I think that we will. Happy endings don´t exist in this world so we have to get back...right?" He looks so hopeful when he ends his speech that Emma´s heart clenches when she remembers his _I wanted to be a knight._

"It says here that I´m gonna bring the happy endings back?" The blond was still a little skeptic about that part. All she did was kill a dragon and break the curse kissing Henry, she didn´t have an active role in bringing anyone´s happy ending.

"Yeah, Rumpelstiltskin saw that you would be the one to break the curse and that you would come back at your 28 th birthday."

"But it doesn´t say what´s gonna happen after the curse." And that is the crux of the matter in her opinion. The key to why she´s here at the past.

"It doesn't say how to break it too, but I have a plan." His eyebrows knit together for a moment. It isn´t hard to see that he´s happy that she is listening to him. And of course Henry is happy. How long has he been trying to tell people the truth? Could the towns people even remember what he was saying to them before she came into town? Emma´s hands clenched while she tried to calm herself, that line of thinking was way too dangerous.

"I know you do. Operation Cobra, right?" She needs to stay focus at the present problem. After that she can begin to make the Evil Queen pay for all she did.

Her son´s surprise in written all over his face. "How you know? You can see the future too?"

"Me? No!" Technically she did saw the future but only because she lived it not because she is some kind of pysch. "Well, not exactly. Look...can we talk? After school?"

Henry is disappointed when he replies in a meek voice "I have a session with Archie..."

"Later then." They see the school and the rush of parents rushing their children inside the building. "At the castle?"

He nods his head and starts to run at school but in the middle of the way he stops (just like she knew he would) turns to her and say "I KNEW YOU WOULD STAY!"

Emma is smiling when she realizes the difference this time."I never said I will."

Her son´s smile only grows large after what she said and the blonde founds herself again marveling at the fact that Henry loves her back. "But you are staying."And with that final remark he turns back and run to school.

"It´s good to see his smile back."

Emma had forgotten that when she walked Henry to the school she had run at Mary Margaret. And here she was now in front of her. Mary Margaret who had no idea that she used to be a much stronger and happier person. Mary Margaret who not only doesn´t know she´s really Snow White but also doesn´t know that she has a daughter. And that her daughter is Emma.

"I didn´t do anything"

"You stayed." There´s a momentary pause because the blonde really doesn´t know what to say to the school teacher who is her best friend and her mother. And she doesn´t remember being either. "So, does the Mayor know you're still here?"

"Oh, she knows I´m staying." Quite probably she already planned my arrest as a way to get me to leave town. I can´t even stay angry because that means that I will see Graham again, and that´s the only reason I´m playing her little game. "Look, Regina mentioned Henry´s going to therapy. Do you know where can I find the doctor?"

/-\

If there´s one thing Emma hates it is be made a fool. Since her teenager years it´s something that happens very rarely (until Storybrooke) and she especially hates when she is fooled twice. But in this particular case she doesn't know how to avoid it…well, she knows how to avoid it but she won´t do it. The blonde tries to comfort herself by thinking that she isn´t _really_ being fooled by Regina; she knows what´s going to happen so by that logic she´s the one fooling the Queen.

Her conversation with Archie went pretty much the same and before going to her room at the Inn she stopped at the diner to finally eat her breakfast (Ruby´s grin was a little to knowing when she handed her a cup of cocoa.). This time Emma had no reason to read Henry´s file so that ended up giving her a little more time before the sheriff stops by. This was not a good thing, mainly because it gave her too much time to stress about the meeting.

When she caught herself checking her appearance in the mirror for the sixth time she scowled. Emma Swan was a 28 year old woman and not a 13 years old teenager going on her first date. But then again, Graham was infinitely more kind, brave, good and handsome then the arrogant, cute, spoiled and unfaithful Logan. A knock at her door stopped her thoughts of football games, stolen kisses in empty classrooms, strawberry ice creams and kisses behind trees in the park.

Her heart skips a beat after opening the door and she starts talking immediately. "Hey there, if you´re concerned about the do not disturb signs don´t worry I have left them alone."

For a fleeting second a smile appeared on the sheriff´s face but by the time Emma noticed it his face showed no trace of amusement. "Actually, I´m here about Dr. Archibald Hooper. He mentioned you got into a bit of row with him earlier?"

"No…"

"I was shocked too. And given your shy, delicate sensibilities…" Emma shakes her head while listening, her blonde curls hiding her amused smirk for the moment. "He says you demanded to see Henry´s files and when he refused you came back and stole them."

The blonde puts more emphasis on denying that she stole this time around. Just to make her act more realistic and not because she wants Graham to know she is innocent. Right. "He. Gave. Them. To. Me"

"Alas, he´s telling a different tale. May I check your room? Or I must get a search warrant?

Emma is already opening the door. "Not necessary. I´m glad to be of service".

The sheriff picks some papers that were strewed on top of the bed. "Well, I can see that. You´re very accommodating" Emma is smirking when he goes to her with the handcuffs. "I´m afraid, Miss Swan, that you´re under arrest. Again"

"You know that the shrink is lying, right?"

"And may I ask why would he do that?"

Emma´s smirk is a little feral when she answers. "Because Regina ordered him too."

/-\

The first time, the drive to the police station was spent in silence with Emma silently fuming in the backseat of the cruiser (and Graham sneaking amused glances at her that made her glare at him when she caught him.). This time things went a little different.

"Look, I know that Regina set me up and that you know that she set me up. So, why not admit it already?"The sheriff shakes his head clearly amused by her insistence and his smirk only grows when he sees her huffs.

"I can only say that you have good instincts." On the backseat, Emma freezes and Graham watches her concerned trough the review mirror. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it´s has been a long day. Just that." Unfortunately by the time she answers his question the blonde is still a little pale and doesn´t sound very convincing.

"Are you sure you all right?" Emma nods her head again when she sees that his blue eyes are on her. "I can stop in the hospital so we can take a look…"

She quickly interrupts him in a somewhat rude manner. "I´m really ok." And then adds on a soft voice "Thanks for caring, but everything´s all right."

When they reach the station, Graham gets out of the cruiser and helps the blonde out .That Emma had expected, what she hadn´t expected was the hand on her lower back guiding her. The touch seems to awake every nerve in her body and she can only pray that the sheriff keeps ignorant of the havoc that his touch cause her.

He´s staring straight ahead but when they enter the station he looks at her and sees that one of her eyebrows is raised in a silent question. "I didn´t want you to faint on me" He quickly goes to the camera and busies himself with it but Emma managed to catch what appeared to be a faint blush.

The flash goes while she´s still smirking at him and for that Emma is graced with a scowl. "Turn right, please."

"As you wish."Another flash goes and she feels a little sorry for him and decides to start a conversation. "So you have wrongly arrested me twice so far."

"Wrongly arrest?" Graham smirks clearly enjoying the return of their banter. "To the left" Another flash. "May you please enlighten me how I could make such a mistake? Twice, I might add."

"I will admit that it´s not your fault, exactly. Regina is the one responsible for my arrests. It technically isn´t the shrink´s fault either since he is so afraid of the mayor" She pauses a little and then continues. "And there´s the wolf but I really don´t think…"

"A wolf? Really?"

"What? Can you honestly tell me there haven´t been reports of people seeing a wolf in town?" The sheriff doesn´t respond and Emma knows that it means that her hunch was correct. It´s not that much of a surprise, anyway. That wolf has clearly been acting almost as a guardian angel to the sheriff. She wonders what happened to him after Graham´s death since she never saw him again. She hopes he didn´t die too. "I knew it."

Graham opens his mouth to say something but then they hear footsteps, Henry appears running with Mary Margaret following close behind.

"Henry! Henry, what are you doing here?"

Like before it´s Mary Margaret who answers the sheriff. And Emma cringes internally when she realizes that´s she´s basically being bailed out by her mother and her son.

"His mother told him what happened."

"Of course she did!" Emma rolls her eyes and then glances at Graham before turning to Henry. "Look, I don´t know what she said, but it..."

And then she gets interrupted by her son who is almost jumping with joy. "You´re a genius!"

"Well, my twelfth grade math teacher wouldn´t agree with you."

"I know what you were doing" Henry´s eyes are shining with so much happiness and his voice is low when he continues "You were getting intel for Operation Cobra!"

"I´m sorry. I´m afraid I´m a bit lost"

Instead of the reply that she expected her sons surprises her.

"That´s a need to know, sheriff. We will explain to you sometime later." Emma could swear that he looked quickly at her, after saying that with a glint in his eyes. "Right now what you need to know is that Miss Blanchard is going to bail her out"

The blonde looks at her oblivious mother and even if she already knew that that was the outcome she still feels a lump in her throat. Even having no idea who she was, barely knowing her at all, her mother still helped.

"I…Thank you." Mary Margaret smiles kindly at her and Henry is looking pretty pleased with himself. She steels herself for the hundredth time today and turns to the sheriff with her cuffed hands. "If you would uncuff me now, I have something to do"

And by something she means some things like cutting down an apple tree, being kicked out of an inn, paying Mary Margaret back, go to Regina when she suggests it, to make peace so that the Queen will not suspect that she knows the curse is real. Speaking of that…

"Hey, Henry! I need to tell you something…"

/-\

"You know that I don´t think you´re crazy, right?" It was the first thing Emma said when she sit down at her son´s side in the castle (This world´s imitation of James and Snow´s castle anyway. Her and Henry´s castle as well since they are the heirs to it.).

"Yes. You told me when we were leaving the station". Her son´s arms uncrossed after he speaks it but he´s still looking pensative at the sea. "It´s all to keep the Queen of the trail".

"Exactly"

Emma was never particularly good at reading people, more often than not she found herself in situations that reminded her why that kind of skill is important to know. But since the very beginning she found it easy to read Henry. Children are normally easy to read, but never that easy. For a long time she ignored that little voice in her head(that later grow to sound suspiciously like Mary Margaret´s) that told her that a child can never fool his mother, now she finds it comforting in the way that the things that prove she´s not such a horrible mother can be. Because of that Emma could almost feel the tension radiating from Henry´s body.

"So…what you wanted to tell me?" Her son asks her in a failed attempt at a strong voice that grows curiously hopeful. "It has something to do with Operation Cobra?"

The blonde feel a pain in her chest at his hopeful tone. It was more than clear that Henry was desperate for someone to believe in him, to have some proof that the curse existed. After she found out that Henry had been telling the truth all this time, the savior wondered more than once how her kid felt telling the truth, but with no one to believe in him. It´s kind of ironic that she´s gonna find out now first hand.

"Yes" Emma crossed her arms and stared fixedly at the waves hitting the shore not wanting to see the boy´s expression after she tells him. "Henry, I broke the curse."

There´s a small but heavy pause and for awhile the ocean´s sound are all they hear. "WHAT? But when did that happened? And how? And why did…"

"Stop!" Emma tore her gaze from the waves and fixed then at her son. Confusion seems to be the primary emotion in his face and there was no trace of skepticism on it, even if there was a trace of something that looked like awe in it. "Just hear me out, ok?"Henry nods and the blonde uncross her arms, trying to force herself to adopt a relaxed position. "I broke the curse on May, 13, 2012. Three days later I fell sleep and when I woke up it was October, 26, 2011. I remember this day!" The blonde´s voice start to get a little high but she doesn´t seems to notice that or the tone of desperation in it. "I lived it! I remembered what people would say or do before they did it! I remember tomorrow and the day after! I remember next week! Hell, I remember next month!"

"So, you time traveled?"

The boy´s curious voice cut her growing mild panic attack. Henry didn´t look at her like she was completely crazy. He looks positively burning with curiosity and excitement and it reminds her of a conversation over chocolate sundaes in Granny´s (_My favorite subject is science. Really, kid? Yeah, why? I would bet it was English. And what was yours? When you were in school? Honestly? P.E)._

"Well, kid that´s one of my theories". Emma has a small amused smile on her face when she sees his eye´s positively twinkle.

"What are the others?"

How to explain that without sounding crazy or making the whole situation improbable or start swearing again? Emma´s pretty sure that 10 years olds mothers don´t swear. Well, at least in front of their children they don´t.

"Or this is a coma induced dream or I´m going insane". She shrugs and continues in a deceptively monotone voice. "Personally, I prefer to think I time traveled but that´s still crazy".

"Crazier than a town that is cursed by an Evil Queen and populated by fairy tale characters?" Henry´s voice is a little smug when he says it but you have to admit the kid made a damn good argument.

"Point taken."

"Well, this can´t be a dream because when we´re dreaming and start to think this is a dream we realized that is the truth." Emma knows it´s an important conversation but she still has to fight to not smile founding at her son´s serious tone and expression. "And you´re not crazy so we can throw that theory away."

"How can you be so sure?" She´s intrigued by his quick dismiss of the going-insane theory but she has a sink feeling about it as well.

"Crazy people never think they´re crazy, right?" That´s a slight desperate edge to his question that makes Emma´s stomach drop. "And I thought I was crazy too when I found out about the curse".

/-\

After Graham´s death, Emma Swan wished. She may not have wished on stars or wished very loudly but she did it. It wasn´t even something she was actively conscious of. In the curse of her life Emma found herself wishing things without any hope of them actually happening, because nothing good ever happened to her. The life of Emma Swan appeared to be one big tragedy without any hope of a happy ending.

Storybrooke changed that. It gave her people that genuinely cared about her and that she cared about as well. It gave her roots, the home that she wished for but never had. It even gave her the family she had searched her whole life for. And now it seems to be giving her back the man she loves, along with a second chance to make things right.

It was surreal. It was _too much_.

Emma took Henry back to the Mayor´s house(He spends the whole ride happily chatting about Operation Cobra and time travel and how things are gonna get better now. The blonde spends the ride trying not to think of everything that went wrong before the curse broke) and after that she drove aimless thought town trying to calm down. Breath in, Breath out, Breath in, Breath out, _Don´t kill Regina_, Breath in, Breath out, Breath in, Breath out.

Just because the Mayor tried to convince her son that he was crazy, kept him from having friends, and it appears, psychologically abused him, doesn´t mean Emma can murder her. Not to mention, of course, having a hand in Charming remembering David Nolan´s memories, trying to frame Mary Margaret, trying to kill Abigail, separating Jefferson from his daughter, keeping Belle as a prisoner, trying to keep Ava and Nicholas separated from their father, trying to make Henry hate her, manipulating Sidney into killing Emma´s grandfather, trying to kill her parents multiple times, cursing the whole town and keeping them in a perpetual state of unhappiness, trying to make her leave town, trying to kill her, killing Henry even if he was dead just for a minute or two, being directily responsible for everything bad that has happened in Emma´s life, separating Emma from her parents, turning Graham into her slave and crushing his heart, effectively killing him.

_Damn! _Emma thought to herself while slamming her hand hard at the wheel. _I am going insane after all. _She rapidly turn her car back and start drive to Granny´s, she desperately needed a drink. Or maybe two, or three...Hell, in truth what she needs is to get drunk! She needs to forget all the evil the Queen did (well, what else Regina was supposed to do? She is known as the Evil Queen after all and that must be for a reason. Or more than one reason. And she seems more than happy to keep the title.), she needs to forget that she apparently time traveled to the past, she needs to forget that Graham died , she needs to forget that her kid´s adoptive mother abused him, she needs to forget that Graham is alive.

So, that was how on the night of her second day in the little town in Maine, Emma Swan found herself sitting in a stool drinking whiskey like there was no tomorrow. Her plan was to forget everything (even if just for one night) since she _couldn´t_ run even if she _wanted_ to. Unfortunately, the blonde´s resistance to alcohol is high and she was not even tipsy when he sat in the stool next to her.

Because even if the universe had finally attended to her wishes it would not give her a break. Why it would do that? Her plan had to not work and the responsible one to put a stop on it _had_ to be the sheriff. Someone up there must be laughing hysterically right now.

"It appears you had a rough day" Graham says as he gestures to her empty glass, a little frown on his face.

"Your assumption would be correct" Emma makes a signal to Ruby and the girl promptly delivers her another dose of whiskey. The sheriff´s frown grows as he watches the drink being poured. "What gave you that impression?" She asks downing a considerable amount of her drink.

"Maybe all the drinking you´ve done," He replies in a sarcastic voice and the blonde is still smirking while he gives Ruby his order of a hamburger to go.

"How do you know how much I had to drink?" Her smirk grows in size and the amusement is clear in her voice. "Have you been spying on me?"

"Hardly," He scoffs at the same time that he avoids her eyes. "But it´s clear to me that this is not your second glass and I really don´t want to arrest you again, Miss Swan."

"Well, who would believe that?" Graham makes a face at her exactly like the one he did when she asked if Regina had her hands in the police the first time around. "I have a high resistance to alcohol, don´t worry. And after the day I had I think I deserve a little something to cheer me up."

His eyes cloud over after her last remark and Emma has to resist the urge to hug him. When he speaks again his voice is soft and laced with guilt. "I´m sorry. Has your day really been that horrible?" Even the small amount of pain that the blonde can see in his eyes is enough to make her avoid it.

"Well, I definitely had better days. But considering that the highlight of my day consist of being arrested by you, you can see how much this day sucked" She quickly drink a little more of her drink even if she knows that it was the whiskey that loosed her tongue enough for her to say that.

"Well," He draws that word a little and even if she can´t see him Emma can clearly hear the amusement in his voice. "I´m glad that I wasn´t included on the reasons of why this day sucked"

"You know something? You were right." Emma stumbles away from the stool at the same time that she slams some money on the counter still not looking at the sheriff. "I think I drink enough already and I should really go" Just because she´s not running away when things get hard anymore, doesn´t mean she´s not running away when things get awkward. That was practically all she did after the curse was broken to tell the truth.

Graham is chuckling while she passes by him in the most not hurried manner she can manage. Emma can feel herself blushing and she can only pray the sheriff didn´t notice the red on her cheeks. Crap! She hasn´t blushed since she was a teenager who was still awkward around boys, and that was years ago.

She needs to start researching time travel now. Especially the effects it can have on the time traveler. Emma´s pretty sure she´s gonna find that the possibility of her going insane is not only really high but completely normal given the circumstances.

/-\

**A/N: First let me start with a big THANK YOU to everyone who left a review, favorite or start to follow this story. I still can´t believe how many people seem to like it!**

**So, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and where the story is going. Again, sorry for the delay but I traveled and spent an inordinate amount of time stuck, trying to get Regina´s voice down. Still don´t know if I did a good job, to be honest. Anyway, because it took me so long to post I decide to leave a little preview of next chapter for you guys.**

**Here it is:**

_"It wasn´t the Mayor. It was a wolf. A very familiar wolf with one red eye._

_Graham´s wolf._

_"Hey, boy." Emma takes a few small steps in his direction. She should know she would find the wolf in the cemetery. He was probably there guarding Graham´s heart, and that realization made her own heart hurt. "Remember me? Emma? "Another small steps in his direction. The wolf´s eyes seem to follow her cautiously. "You made me crash my car so I wouldn´t leave town."_

**Please, tell me what you thought of the chapter and the direction the story is taking.**


	3. They re all dead hearts to you

_A/N: Disclaimer is in the prologue. Further information as at the end of the chapter. Many thanks to my lovely beta EvelynRose, for RleFay for the search help and to everyone who left a review, favorite and starts to follows this story. Also, the song is Dead Hearts by Stars._

Chapter Two: They´re all dead hearts to you.

_I can say it, but you won't you believe me.__  
__You say you do, but you don't deceive me.__  
__It's hard to know they're out there,__  
__It's hard to know that you still care.__  
__I can say it, but you won't you believe me.__  
__You say you do, but you don't deceive me.__  
__Dead hearts are everywhere!__  
__Dead hearts are everywhere!_

Somehow when people advised her to not skip classes in her high school days, Emma Swan never listened. Because how good would school be to someone like her? It´s not like she ever planned going to college, anyway. And school didn´t teach her to recognize when someone was trying to use her, or how to defend herself when someone was trying to assault her, or how to fix her plumbing because she doesn´t have money to call a plumber, or even how to not get lost in a new city. These things she learned by herself, no one taught her, least of all the school.

Sitting at Granny´s, almost ten years after finishing high school, Emma is convinced that hindsight is a bitch and that she should have, at the very least, not skipped psychics' class. Of course, considering what she read on Google (Did you know that if you digit time travel you´ll find results?) psychics wouldn´t help her understand how in the hell she managed to time travel.

And to make matters worse it seems that there´s this huge discussion of if time travel to the past is possible (apparently it´s much more easy to travel to the future. Who would have thought that, huh?) and the seemingly accepted methods of travelling to the past don´t include sleep. Ironically enough, sleeping seems to be a common way of travel to the future according to literature.

Henry did try to help her but not only are the psychics' books in the town library surprisely outdated, there´s nothing about time travel in Henry´s fairytale book.

Since she didn´t find a wormhole or something that could be used as a time machine, the only conclusion is that if she travelled through time it was done by magic. Of course, that was her first thought, but the fact that she knows now how she travelled will not help her know why she travelled. And so, it begins the search of the effects of time traveling.

Google might not be able to help her much, but she still has other ways of gathering information. And by other ways she means books, movies and tv shows. Well, Jefferson did say that other worlds exist, so for all she knows the man had been to Oz and actually knows Harry Potter or something. And that means that maybe the things about time travel in these apparently fictional works are true. Who knows?

The one thing that all of the fictional and not fictional works seems to agree on, is that it is not possible to change the past. No matter what you do, something will happen that will make it impossible for you to change it. It´s called the law of causality, of cause and effect. The cause occurs before the effect, and that´s why so many scientists dismiss travelling to the past as an impossibility.

And this is when Emma´s nightmares started. She would attempt to save Graham and something would happen, he would end up eating the apple turnover and her kiss wouldn´t revive him like it did to Henry, or they wouldn´t be able to put his heart back and Regina would find it and crush it anyway. There was even one where Graham was killed and Emma was framed for it (Emma still has the suspicion that Regina wanted to kill Kathryn, not kidnap her).

She ends up blaming the lack of sleep for the crying that comes after watching an episode of Doctor Who. At least, she was in her car, it was late at night, and no one saw her crying because of The Angels Take Manhattan. Emma´s pretty sure she will never be able to look at an angel statue the same way again.

Death seems to be the one thing that everyone travels in time to fix, and it is also the failure of every time traveler.

Hope, though, it´s the one thing that Emma Swan always had in life. Even at her lowest, the blonde still had that tiny flame of hope inside herself. Because maybe, just _maybe_, one day she would find her parents, she would have a family, someone would love _her_.

Hope, this time, came in the theory of alternative universes. There was a possibility that she could change the past, after all. It just wouldn´t be her past. The idea that somewhere in space and time, there was a Emma Swan, who after crying her heart out in the station, woke up to headaches and pains in the neck in a world where Graham was dead was…Well, sad is the only word that comes to mind.

Of course, the possibility that something will not end up like she wanted also crossed her mind. Maybe the alterations that she does to the past will make it impossible for her to break the curse or maybe Graham won´t fall in love with her. That´s why she had decided to stick as close to what originally happen before as she could, and that resulted in a long talk with Henry about how she can´t break the curse now. About the fact that Graham may not love her…the important thing is that he would be alive. And that is enough (it _has_ to be enough).

That was all the information that Emma managed to gather. Books, movies, tv shows and Google can only take you so far. And all of that means Emma is stuck in her search. She always hated when she found a dead end in her searches and it inevitably managed to put her in a bad mood.

So it was a scowling at her notebook Emma that had a mug of hot cocoa thrusted at her by the smiling sheriff as she muttered about slow internet connections.

"I think I owe you a hot cocoa with cinnamon, right?"

"Thanks". When she reaches for the mug, Emma´s fingers briefly touch Graham´s and it´s enough for her eyes to fix on anything but his. That´s when she notices that the cup he´s holding in his other hand appears to be hot cocoa as well. With cinnamon on top. "So I´m suppose to believe you like cinnamon on your hot cocoa?"

Graham grins at her while sitting at the other side of her table. If she didn´t know him like she did, Emma would probably miss the flash of hesitance in his eyes. And it breaks her heart a little that he thought she wouldn´t like if he sat at her table. "Well, I will admit the taste is not so bad. After awhile it even grows on you."

Now after a line like that who would believe he was actually raised by wolves? And that before she came into town, he had never flirted with anyone? "Good to see I helped you acquire such fine taste in beverages."

The sheriff shrugs one shoulder in a casual manner, while they both take a sip of their respective chocolates. Emma turns back to her computer and decides to end her search, it´s not like she will suddenly find some new information anyway.

"Do I even want to know what got you so irritated before?"

"I suppose I could tell you, but you wouldn´t believe me." Graham´s eyebrows raise a little and he seems to incline his body in her direction unconsciously.

"Try me."

He is looking at her trying to be persuasive and the blonde knows that. But for some reason her gaze seems to linger on his lips. Graham had kissed her before and she knows what his kisses taste like (she doesn´t think it´s something that she will ever forget) but suddenly she´s acutely aware that they hadn´t kissed in a very long while.

Her lips feel dry so she licks them and the sheriff appears to accompany the path her tongue makes with his eyes. It´s suddenly way too hot in the dinner and Emma incline her body a little in his direction. There´s a small grin on Graham´s face and the urge to make him stop grinning that way at her grows exponentially.

"Emma! Emma!" Henry´s voice reaches her ears and before he even finishes call her a second time or stop running at front of her table, the blonde´s body is completely rested at her chair and facing her son´s direction. "I found Prince Charming!"

The boy´s eyes are twinkling happily but the bail bonds had to take a moment to understand what he was talking about( To tell the truth, she needed a moment to take her mind away from Graham´s lips and what they would feel like) and to realize that finding Prince Charming means finding her father.

"I´m sorry, you found who?"Graham´s confused voice stop her thought.

Her son then seems to notice the sheriff´s presence and Emma wonders if he told him about the curse during the last couple of days. Otherwise, that conversation is gonna turn way to weird for the sheriff.

"Prince Charming. Snow White´s true love, remember?" Comprehension seems to dawn at Graham´s face and the blonde has to stop the audible sigh of relief that she wants to make. That makes things _a little_ easier.

"So where is he?" Henry gives her a strange look for asking such a stupid question. They both know where Charming is after all. Emma inclines her head a little at Graham´s direction and the boy seems to take the hint.

"He´s at the hospital in a coma." He puts the fairytale book in front of Emma´s notebook and opens at the page with a drawing of his grandfather. "He has that same scar in the same place."

"So who he is in Storybrooke?" Graham´s voice doesn´t have a trace of incredulously. He appears to be more curious then anything. Emma has to stop the smile that threats to appear in her face, she just knew that the sheriff wouldn´t think Henry was crazy and that he would try to help her son.

"John Doe. Miss Blanchard says that´s what they call you when they don´t know your name"

"There´s a John Doe in Storybrooke? I don´t remember that." Graham appears to be a little disturbed by the possibility that he didn´t realize that one of the town´s inhabitants needed his help.

"Don´t worry, you just don´t remember because of the curse." Henry´s matter-of-a-fact tone reminded Emma of the first hours after the curse was broken (_Whale? We were cursed._) .

"I should go back to the station and see if there´s a John Doe file." Graham quickly drinks the rest of his cocoa and is already standing up by the time Emma talks again.

"Ok, you try to find the file and Henry and I are gonna try to wake up Prince Charming." The blonde is also standing up, at the same time that she ends her drink and starts to guard her notebook.

"And how you two are gonna do that?"

"By requesting Snow White´s help, of course." Emma´s voice seems to indicate that it should be obvious for the sheriff what they would do. She turns to Henry who is already putting the book on his back pack. "C´mon, kid. Let´s walk you to school."

Henry is already out of the door when Emma turns and almost collides with Graham who was a few steps behind them.

"Oh, and thanks for the cocoa" The blonde already turned and was out of the dinner before she could see the sheriff´s content smile.

/-\

"You want me to read to a coma patient?"

If she stopped to do the math, Emma´s pretty sure that´s the first _real_ conversation she has with her mother. After the curse was broken, Snow did try to have a real talk with her daughter but things were kind of chaotic and Emma focused on that. So, while her mother tries to, well, _ambush_ her, the blonde is focused on finding Regina, stop the people from panic, mediate custody battles, help people get divorces, stop innumerous murder attempts, help look for people´s loved one…in other words, she kept busy.

Since travelling back in time, she has avoided (there´s no other word, really.) the school teacher and the few times they did talk it was always rushed. Now, Emma is sitting at the loft that she had learned to see as home, drinking hot cocoa with her mother. And she´s trying to convince Snow White to read a book with their story in it to Prince Charming who is in a coma. These days her life is looking more and more like a painting of Salvador Dalí.

"Henry thinks it will help him remember who he was." The blonde´s voice is casual while she stirs her cocoa with the cinnamon stick. "Besides, reading is supposed to be good for coma patients, right?"

"Yes, but only if the patient knows the person that is reading." At the look at Emma´s face, Mary Margaret frowns and inclines her head a little to the left. "Henry thinks that I know that coma patient? But from where?"

"The Enchanted Forest." Emma takes a careful sip of her chocolate.

The school teacher closes her eyes and let a little sigh. "So, that would make the coma patient…"

"Prince Charming."

"And with me as Snow White he thinks that him…and me..."

Emma decides to save her best friend and get to the heart of the matter, so to speak. "He has a very active imagination, you know that. We need to show him the truth about fairytales but we can´t talk him out of his beliefs. I thought that if we played along, doing what he says, then maybe, just…maybe."

"He´ll see that fairytales are just that. That love at first kiss or first sight doesn´t exists."The blonde hides her little grin by taking another sip of her cocoa. "He´ll se reality." Mary Margaret concludes in a kind of sad voice and Emma wonders if the school teacher knows in some deep corner of her soul that these things do exist.

"Something like that."

"Well, sadly this plan is rather genius. We get him to the truth without hurting him." The brunette takes a sip of her cocoa and there´s something in her expression that reminds Emma of herself. That´s part of the reason why the blonde couldn´t stand much time in her parents' presence. She recognizes herself in them.

Suddenly, it´s too much. Emma´s self-preservation instincts kick in again and she has to run.

"I told him we would all meet tomorrow for breakfast at Granny´s, and that you would give a full report." Emma finishes the rest of her cocoa in a gulp and puts Henry´s book on the kitchen table. She tries not to look like a cornered animal while she grins at the school teacher.

"I guess I have to get ready for my date. I suppose I´ll do all the talking."

"I should leave you them."

"No, it´s ok. It´s still early. You don´t want to stay for dinner?"Mary Margaret´s face looks so much like the hopeful expression on Snow´s eyes, the first time Emma called her by her _real_ name, that it hurts a little.

"It´s all right. There´s somewhere I should go, anyway."

It doesn´t matter how long Emma Swan searched for her parents. Nothing could have prepared her for what feels to be a daughter. A loved daughter. At least, with this time travel thing, she has more time to get used to the idea.

/-\

She wasn´t lying exactly. There is a place she hadn´t gone since a little before travelling back in time, and she really needs to be there now. Except, what she looks for in that place doesn´t exist, and she hopes with all her heart it never will.

Graham´s grave.

Emma can count in one hand the times she visited the sheriff´s final resting place. After his funeral (she came back alone), when she won the sheriff election, after Jefferson kidnapped her, when Mary Margaret was the principal suspect to Kathryn´s murder and after August showed her the ' big picture'.

Even if she only went to this place a few times, the blonde found the spot where Graham´s body had lain without difficult. There was only grass there, of course. And if Emma has her way that´s all that's gonna be in that particular spot.

Still, she did what she always did in her previous visits. She imagined she was talking with Graham.

"I, I know that you´re not dead anymore. And I´m so glad for that, Graham." Here she took a deep breath and try to stop the tears from coming. Emma Swan is not a crier, after all. "Remember the last time I came? I told you I had never been more lost in my life. Well, I was wrong. Now I have never been more lost in my life. And I can´t even talk to you, not really…"

Movement at the corner of her eye made her stop what looked like another ramble (Why every time she pretends to talk to Graham does she always ramble on and on?). For a terrified moment, the blonde thought that it was Regina coming to put flowers at her father´s grave.

It wasn´t the Mayor. It was a wolf. A very familiar wolf with one red eye.

Graham´s wolf.

"Hey, boy." Emma takes a few small steps in his direction. She should know she would find the wolf in the cemetery. He was probably there guarding Graham´s heart, and that realization made her own heart _hurt_. "Remember me? Emma? "Another few small steps in its directions. The wolf´s eyes seem to follow her cautiously. "You made me crash my car so I wouldn´t leave town."

Finally, the blonde could swear she saw recognizance in its bicolor eyes. The wolf advances in her direction slowly, waging his tail. When it´s close enough, she starts to pet him.

"You´re protecting Graham, aren´t you?" The wolf wags his tail with a little more force and Emma decides to see that as a yes. "Don´t worry, you´re not the only one now."

The wolf barks.

/-\

"So, you told Graham about the curse." It´s supposed to be a question but Emma says it like a statement.

Her son passes some strawberry jam in his toast. "Yeah, I did."

She expects an explanation but when Henry simply starts to munch on his toast, she decides to go straight to the point. "Why?"

"You were nice to him." At his mother´s raised eyebrow, the boy tries to offer a better answer. "You are always talking to him. It looked like you were friends...am I wrong?"Henry´s eyes betray his amused but there´s enough curiosity in them for the blonde to know it isn´t a rhetorical question.

"No, you´re not." She takes a sip of her hot cocoa, and is graced with what looked like an exactly replica of her past look. "He gave me a job. I was his deputy."

(_It´s in my badger_.)

The bell signaling a new costumer goes off, and they see Mary Margaret comes in their direction.

"So?"Emma resists the urge to sigh in relief. Saved by the bell, literary.

"He woke up!" Mary Margaret´s voice would be enough for betray her incredulously, if her face didn´t already have that covered. "I mean he didn't 'wake up' wake up, but he grabbed my hand"

"Really?" The blonde made sure to drop enough douse of incredulously in her voice. One thing that she learned from all this time travel business is that her childhood dream of being an actress wasn´t so pretentious after all.

"Well, the doctor did say that I imagined it, but I know that I didn´t. I´m not crazy."

"Of course you´re not!" Ok, perhaps Emma´s vehemence was a little too much; it´s just that the whole thinking-you´re-insane thing is still a sore subject with her.

"C´mon!" Henry is already standing up and gesturing impatiently for them to follow him. "We have to go back. We need to get you to read to him again"

The brunette took less than five seconds to jump and start follow her student. "Let´s go!"

They enter the hospital running. Even if she´s the last of the trio, Emma´s sure she was the one who spotted Graham´s first. By now, she´s pretty sure she can identify his jacket miles away, and how could she not considering all the times she stared at it?

"He´s waking up!"

It seems that Graham recognizes Henry´s gleeful voice, because he turns back from his conversation pretty quickly.

"Henry, you should stay back."

"What´s going on? Is it John Doe? Is he all right?" That Mary Margaret is worried is obvious. That she´s more worried than one should be about someone they don´t really know, is something that apparently only Emma picks up.

"He´s missing."

The blonde crosses her arms expecting to see Regina but the sheriff doesn´t step back this time. If the bail bonds didn´t knew better it looked like he was trying to protect them from Regina (but at this point in time, Graham had no idea who the mayor _really _is…right?).

"What happened to John Doe? Did someone take him?"

"We don´t know yet. His IVS were ripped out but there´s no signal of a struggle."

Of course, even if Graham was protecting them, they couldn´t stayed hidden from the Queen forever.

Regina´s face was a mask of controlled furious. "What the hell are you doing here?" It´s then that she seems to notice that Henry is with them. "And you- I thought you were at the arcade. Now you´re lying to me?"

Emma´s hands clench when she sees the grip that the mayor has on her son. And she´s surprised that the kid is lying to her? God, how hypocritical can the woman actually be?

"Why wouldn´t I? You lie to me all the time." The boy´s voice is angry and his response surprises both his adopted and his biological mother.

"C'mon, we gonna talk about your insubordination latter. Do you know what insubordination means?" When Henry just shakes his head, Regina let go of the grip on his arm, but holds his hand and start to pull him away. "It means you´re grounded."

Half way on her way out, the mayor turns back.

"Sheriff? Find John Doe. Dr. Whale told me time is precious. And Miss Swan? Since this clearly doesn´t concern you, stay out of this. Stay away from my son as well."

Emma smiles tightly but holds her tongue in check. Time is precious after all and she doesn´t want to risk her father´s chances.

Graham looks her way for a bit before turns to Whale.

"Doctor, how long between your rounds since you last saw him?"

"Twelve hours or so."

"Then that´s what we need to take account for."

Emma decides that she stayed quite too long. "Where is the security room?" She directs that question at Whale and the doctor seems to be a little surprised by her question.

"Why?"

It´s Graham who answers him. "We need to see the security tapes."

It´s a small thing to be happy about but when the sheriff said we (twice!), clearly disobeying Regina, Emma felt like her stomach was doing somersaults.

"It´s the third door on the corridor turning left."

"Thank you"

Inside the room, the trio found Leroy and Walter there; a nurse had already informed them the sheriff wanted to see them. The blonde couldn´t help but grin a little when she sees the later. She´s the only one who can appreciate the irony of Sleepy being a night guard, after all.

"You two were the only employees at the floor last night. And you saw nothing."

"Not a thing."

"I didn´t see nothing"

Graham is about to speak again when Emma interrupts him.

"We´re looking at the wrong tape. The kids hang up banners in this ward yesterday, if this was really the real tape we would see the decorations."

"Tsch, you fell asleep again."

"You selling me out?"

"I ain't getting fired for this."

"At least I don't drink on the job."

It was a little surreal see the dwarfs, who were literary honorary uncles to Emma, fighting like that. It doesn´t even matter that theoretically, she had already seen them fighting like that, it was still weird.

"Gentlemen, enough. Where is the real tape?"

When they see Charming awake in the right tape this time, Mary Margaret is the first to speak.

"He walked out alone. He´s okay." The relief in her voice is almost palpable.

"Where does this door lead?"

And that´s how Emma Swan saw herself back at the woods tracking down her missing amnesiac just-woke-up-from-a-coma father. Well, Graham was tracking him, to tell the truth, but then again he was the Huntsman.

"The trail runs out here"

The optimist little corner of her mind that is not consumed with worry for her father (She knew she should have done something about his situation sooner. What if something does change and not for the better?), enjoys watching Graham in his element.

"But you can find him, right?"

That´s enough worry in her voice for the sheriff to momentary stop his frantic search and try to assure her.

"Sure. This is my world. I´m gonna find Prince Charming."

When he leaves again, Mary Margaret turns to Emma.

"Prince Charming?"

"Oh, yes. Henry told him about the curse as well."

The school teacher seems a little pensative and honestly confused. "I didn´t knew these two were close. Well, Graham did help him with his science fair project last year but…"

"Wait. What?"

"Well, normally the parents are supposed to help the elementary school children with their science project. The mayor is always busy, so normally Henry does that with the help of the teacher." At the moment, Emma vows to help her kid with his next science project. Even if she never really liked science and have to read uncountable boring books. "Last year, his teacher, Miss Goodwin, end up sick and couldn´t help Henry. So, Graham was the one who helped him."

_Oh, Graham._

Emma still manages to speak, even with the lump in her throat.

"But then, how come they are not close?"

Mary Margaret looks a little apprehensive with the question. "It appears that Regina didn´t like when she found out."

Of course. The ever control-freak Regina wouldn´t like to see Henry getting close to anyone besides herself. Jesus, that woman needs some help urgently.

As if she could hear the thought going on Emma´s head, the brunette tried to change the direction of the conversation just a little. "So, Graham knows?

"Yeah. He knows."

It looked like the school teacher would say something more, but they heard a crack behind them and they turn to see Henry a little out of breath for all the running he did.

"Henry!"

"Did you find him yet?"

Emma has to smile a little at his ever present optimism. "No, not yet. You actually took longer than I thought to come back, kid."

Mary Margaret looks a bit surprised. "You knew he was coming?"

"Sure. Prince Charming went missing and the Evil Queen tried to stop the kid from coming. It´s obvious that at the moment her back is turned, he would run to here."

"Guys!"

At the sound of Graham´s voice, all three of them start to run. They find the sheriff crouched examining something at the ground that Emma knows for sure is Charming´s hospital bracelet.

"Is that…"

"Blood."

"We need to find him _now_!" Henry´s voice is the one who spurges the others to keep looking.

While looking for the forest, Graham still following the trail, Emma turns to her son.

"Don´t worry, kid. He´s going to be all right. _Trust me_."

Henry nods at his mother´s words. Meanwhile, the blonde is trying not to think of time paradoxes like the grandfather one.

/-\

"That´s not his wife." Emma strides in the sheriff office with purpose, her footsteps echoing in the dark station. The only light comes from the lamp at the sheriff´s desk. Graham´s desk. Emma´s old desk.

Everything happened like the first time. They found Charming (And Emma couldn´t shake the feeling that it was _them_ who had to find her father. His family. Yes, she´s including Graham in that count. And it scares her.). Mary Margaret bought him back. Charming doesn´t know who he is. After taking the amnesiac man back to the hospital, Henry went home so the Queen wouldn´t find him there. Regina bought Kathryn into the hospital and still had the nerve to say that true love won out.

After that, Emma went to Mary Margaret and consoled the school teacher (who didn´t even knew why she needed consoling. Not really) while waiting to speak with the sheriff. Storybrooke is still a small town, even if it´s a cursed one, and late at night there´s no living soul out on the streets. This means, that Regina´s eyes and ears won´t know about the conversation taking place between her and Graham.

"Emma?" A shiver curls down her spine at the sound of her name in his voice. No one else ever says her name the way he does, accent curling around the vowels and a tender softness that makes her ache. It´s the first time he calls her by her first name, first time since she travelled in time and it´s like a punch to her gut.

It takes her a moment to get her bearings, when she does; Emma notices tiredness on his voice along the ever present tender softness. There´s a cup of coffee on his desk along some folders and the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up showing a nice pair of forearms (her gaze may have linger a little longer on them).

"I´m sorry, I shouldn´t have barged in here like this." The blonde´s voice is surprisingly low compared to before, it´s like she thinks speaking loudly would tire the man even more. "Long night?"

"You could say that." He stretches a little before standing up, arching his back and flexing his arms in a definitely entrancing way. "I did manage to find the John Dole file, it´s even in my hand writting, but there´s no date in it. I was going looking for you and Henry to tell you guys about it, but I got that call from the hospital."

"That´s all right." Her fingers curl against her leather jacket in an effort for not reaching him. Even if it´s been a while since she come to the past, the urges to reach out and touch Graham (to know that he´s _real_. That´s he´s really _here_) haven´t passed. Sometimes, like just now, the urge surprises her with its intensity.

Emma doubts it´s something that will end anytime soon.

"And I didn´t have you cell number, so it´s not like I could call you…"The sheriff trails off and look at the blonde in what can only be described as a doubtful hopeful way.

"It´s that your way of asking my number?" She has a big smile on her face when she sees his discomfort. Payback is a bitch.

Graham clears his throat.

"And I didn´t find any David Nolan missing file."

Emma decides to cut him a little slack and accept the subject change. "I knew there was something wrong with the story Regina come up."

"So you´re thinking the women are lying?"

"Regina, yes. Kathryn, no. I´m pretty good at telling when someone is lying and that woman was genuine. Doesn´t mean the whole story isn´t fishing though." She shrugs a little after finish talking.

"Well, the marriage certificate is not false, but the Evil Queen makes no small amount of effort into separating Snow White and Prince Charming." There´s a little smile on his face when he tells her that.

"What is manipulating someone into believing an amnesic patient is your husband, to the one who used an apple to poison someone?"

Bantering with Graham in the station, Emma is reminded of the days when she was his deputy. Days long gone but still, somehow, possible in a not so distant future.

"I really don´t remember Prince Charming being married to someone other than Snow White"

"According to Henry´s book, he almost married someone else." At Graham´s raised eyebrow, Emma explains better. "Charming was engaged when he and Snow White met. I guess that would makes Kathryn King Midas' daughter, Abigail."

"Right. I forgot that the stories on the book are different from the ones we know." The sheriff takes a sip of his coffee. "And according to Henry who are you? Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty?"

Since Emma is looking at him with such a you-are-insane expression, Graham hushes to explain himself.

"I mean these are the only blonde princess I know." He scrunches his face in thought. "Wait. There´s another one, right?"

The blonde´s voice is soft and a tiny bit incredulous when she answers him. "You think I would be a princess?"

Graham is right. Emma Swan is a princess, after all. It´s just that a princess is not what someone would associate with her. She´s most certainly not princess material.

"Yeah. There´s just something about you…" He trails off a little and when he does speaks again is with a sheepish smile. "And you´re more than pretty enough to pull that off."

Emma can feel the blood rushing to her cheeks and let some of her hair cascade down her front, hoping to hide her blush. "So about the John Doe case..."

Graham´s husky laugh interrupts her. Payback is a bitch indeed. She can´t see because of the beard, but it appears that he´s blushing a little as well. That knowledge calms her down a bit.

"As you wish, princess."

Emma rolls her eyes a little at the title but doesn´t comment on it. "You do know what we need to do, right?"

"No, but I have a feeling you do."

"We need to check these tapes Regina mentioned."

And that is how Emma finds herself reliving some of her days before Storybrooke. Breaking into a place it´s not something new, neither is the warm male presence behind her when she´s picking the lock. The feelings that the male presence invokes shouldn´t be new either, but their intensity certainly is.

"I´m the sheriff and I´m breaking into a security room." Graham´s voice, so close, is not good for her concentration.

"Sometimes, you have to break the law a little in order to get justice." Or in their case, break the law in order to break a curse.

Emma stands up, after hearing the sound of the lock giving, and spares him a brief glance. Graham´s jaw is set, but his eyes are soft when he pulls the door and gestures for her to enter.

"Ladies first."

She stands at the same spot for just a moment before moving forward into the room. Emma wonders what working for the Queen could have done to the Huntsman´s sense of honor. It´s obvious that the sheriff does not like the whole breaking in thing, he´s only doing it because even if he doesn´t remember the curse, Graham knows that it isthe only way to right what feels like a wrong.

It´s kind of funny, that when Emma Swan finally managed to fall in love it was for a good guy. And they say that good guys don´t get the girl.

Graham is close behind and he closes the door after she pulls the light. The room where they store the security tapes is tiny; Emma can still hear the sounds of the television at the reception (it looks like a football game. The night guards must not been into sports much, since they were snoring when they passed them), and the light is not very good.

"No wonder it was so easy to switch the tapes. This town doesn´t seem to understand the concept of security." She murmurs, while searching the shelves.

Of course, except when we´re talking about what the Queen wants to stay safe and hidden.

"To be truthful, I don´t think we ever really needed it." The sheriff´s back is against her while he´s searching the other side´s shelves. The skin on Emma´s back feels very warm all of sudden.

She scoffs, and even if his back is to her, the blonde can clearly see the smirk on his face. She might be wrong, but it seems that Graham was smiling a lot more this second time around (and so was she).

The silence is too much for the bail bonds (even with the buzzing of the television as a distant echo) and she eventually opens her mouth again.

"I know you don´t like doing this. So, thank you."

There´s a pause and Emma thinks that he won´t acknowledge what she just said. She´s wrong.

"You don´t need to thank me." Graham´s voice is low and for some reason his accent is more noticeable than ever. "It´s my job to help the people of Storybrooke."

"I know. It´s just that you´re helping me too. And you don´t really have too." Emma´s smirk is just a bit sad, not that he could see it. "Till today I wasn´t even a resident of Storybrooke."

And he doesn´t. Helping Emma is what ended up causing his demise the first time. Sure, it was Regina who took his heart and turned it into dust. But none of this would have happened if Emma hadn´t showed up in town. Rationally, the blonde knows it´s all Regina´s fault, but there´s still that small voice that says she was guilty as well.

It´s like everyone she loves is taken away from her one way or another.

"What do you mean?"Graham says confused.

"Mary Margaret offered me her spare room. I decide to accept the offer tonight and I guess that makes me the new resident of the town."

"So that means you´ve left the inn?"

She turns around so quickly, she bumps into some shelves. The noise makes Graham turn as well, a tape clutched at his hands.

"You don´t know?"Emma asks in an incredulous whisper.

"Know what?"

"Regina made got me kicked out of the inn." She shrugs. "Apparently there´s a rule against accepting people with a criminal record at Granny´s."

Graham´s jaw is set and his hands clutch the tape with a little more force. The noise attracts Emma´s attention to it.

"Is that the tape we´re looking for?" The blonde points to it.

"Yeah."

The sheriff hand her the tape and she makes a move to get away from the room. A familiar hand on her wrist stops her.

"But you´re living with Mary Margaret now, right?"

Emma nods and he release her. Why do you even care? It´s a question that she had to swallow. The first time around, the blonde would argue with Graham, ask why he cares and insists she´s perfectly capable of living in her car, it´s nothing she hasn´t done before.

Now though…now she is scared of what the answer to her question could be.

\-/

They left the tape at the station to analyze at a later date. Graham told her to go home and rest since she looked tired, he has no way to know that Emma doesn´t plan on rest until the curse is broken and he is saved, along with everyone else in the town. So, the blonde smiles and says the same thing to him. In truth, she doesn´t go to Mary Margaret´s. She goes to the cemetery again, but this time she doesn´t plan on talking to Graham´s no-existent grave.

For every cause there´s an effect, she knows that. What´s she´s gonna do will definitely have an immense effect on the way things are supposed to go. But what´s the point of travelling back to the time the man you love is alive, if you don´t even try to save him?

The wolf is there again. Emma swears he knows what´s she´s about to do.

For the second time that night, Emma is picking a lock. This time she´s not searching for a doctored tape. She´s searching for a heart, and not in the metaphorical way. The one helping in her search is a wolf, not a lion, and he´s not a coward.

Well, she had been in more bizarre situations in her life.

The moment the door opened with a soft click, the wolf was already sneaking inside. The blonde is just closing the door again when she hears the whine. Graham´s wolf is digging his paws into the floor at the edge of the casket. She also noticed marks at the floor.

"So it´s here?"

Before breaking the curse, Emma would never try to talk to an animal, she would also never believe the animal in question could understand her. The wolf let a small bark when he heard her question though.

And that´s what prompted her to push against the stone structure, supposedly guarding the body of Regina´s father. The moment the opening was exposed, her companion bounded down the stairs, Emma following close behind.

Graham was right the first time. That´s where she kept all the stolen hearts, including his. The sound of the casket sliding back into place stopped her urge to bang her head against a wall for her stupidity. If only Regina hadn´t come, maybe they would have found the way in and…

The sight of a wall full of little drawers stopped her thoughts and literally made her stop in her tracks. There were so many drawers, more than Emma could count.

_So many _hearts. So many _stolen hearts_.

Emma suddenly feels the bile rising in her throat at the sight. How could Regina do that to so many people? God, what kind of twisted woman was the one who ended up raising her kid? And how had Henry turned out so well, despite being raised by someone so _heartless_?

The feeling of dampness on her wrist made her look at the ground, where the wolf was staring patiently at her. When he realized he had her attention, the canine started walking in the direction of the wall and she followed him. He put his paw in one of the drawers and turned to look at her.

Taking a deep breath, Emma takes the little drawer of the wall and opens it. Inside there´s a glowing red human heart. It doesn´t beat, just glows in a slow rhythm that´s almost hypnotic. The huntsman´s heart. The heart of the one who spared a young girl and was cruelly punished for it. Graham´s heart.

In his home, the sheriff will hear the triumphant howl of a wolf at the distance while he´s sleeping. He will dream of a forest, a wolf with one red eye and a beautiful, snarky, blonde woman. By morning, he will forget about the forest and the wolf. He will only remember that he dreamed about Emma.

/-\

**A/N: Again, sorry for the delay, law school started(and God only knows how long it took to decide the classes I´m taking this semester) and my beta was swamped with uni work. But look at the bright side, the chapters are always long!**

**Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and let me know your thoughts on it!**


	4. You don t have to be brave

_A/N: Disclaimer is in the prologue. I´m really sorry for the delay, but real life aka law school got in the way. Also, this chapter is un-beta and I´m sincerely sorry for all the grammar mistakes you´ll undoubtedly found. Further information on the end of the chapter along what may or may not be a mini rant. Ah! And the song is Be Still by Kelly Clarkson (who is an OUAT fan!)._

**Chapter Three: You don´t have to be brave.**

_A brand new start  
Is all we need, it's all we need to mend these hearts  
Back to the beginning_

_ Be still_  
_ Let it go_

It´s been years since Emma Swan had a nightmare. During the last couple of days though, that´s all she dreams. It was 3 am when Emma woke up with a scream stuck in her throat and shaking hands. Less than one hour after, she was outside, with the wind blowing her ponytail and the sound of her sneakers hitting the pavement repeatedly.

There are a lot of ways people deals with stressful situations. There are the ones who cook (and the ones who eat), some listen to classic music, others vent with a friend. Emma Swan runs, both in the metaphorical and the literal sense. Being a bail bonds person automatically means that there´s a lot of running involved, but that kind of running is usually done to catch a mark or save her life. It´s has been a while since she ran as a form of escaping her problems without _actually_ escaping them.

The wind on her face, the sounds of her sneakers hitting the ground, her rapid breath, the rush of adrenaline…These are things that keep her mind away from the present situation. They keep her mind away from the glowing heart inside a chest, hidden in her new/old room in Mary Margaret´s.

It´s her first change, since coming to the past, and that knowledge alone almost leave her paralyzed with fear. You´re not supposed to change the past, mainly because you´re not able do it. Till now, it seems that Emma Swan had succeeded where others have failed.

At least, it looked like she wasn´t forcibly ejected from the time stream, doomed to float around limbo forever, like some of her research stated rather emphatically she would be if she changed anything. That was a small comfort.

Of course, she´s been in the possession of Graham´s heart from less than 24 hours, anything could happen. God knows that her room isn´t the safest hide place, not with Regina possessing that damn set of keys. But where should she put to safe keeping something so precious?

The rumble of her stomach signals that it´s time to finally eat something. Going to run without even have anything to eat wasn´t the best idea Emma ever had.

Fortunately, Granny´s is already opened by the time the blonde comes. Unfortunately, it´s still too early (not at all the time Emma comes to the dinner) and the place is empty.

Emma throws herself in a stool with a relieved sigh while she calls anyone. "Hello? Ruby? Is anyone here?"

A startling oath reaches her ears, and the blonde is once again running, this time in the laundry room direction.

There´s a blonde teenager girl in the middle of the room. She´s picking pink sheets from the floor and putting in a basket and she looks on the verge of tears.

The scene is familiar but what freaks Emma out is that the timing is all wrong. She´s only supposed to meet Ashley Boyd tomorrow, after she spills hot cocoa on her shirt. Why is it happening early?

"Oh, I´m sorry." Ashley finally spots her. "I didn´t see you coming. Do you…uh…need anything?"

Ashley Boyd is quite clearly a lost and insecure teenager. Even after she and Sean reconciled there was still some insecurity in her. Ella, on the other hand, was a determined young woman, who managed to hold together when a terrible curse was coming at the same time that her husband was missing and she was pregnant.

The contrast between these two, were never more clearly in Emma´s mind then at this moment.

"Yeah. Is Ruby here?"

"She had some kind of emergency, so I was the one who opened the dinner. She should be here in an hour or two though." Ashley is just putting the last sheet on the basket when Emma´s stomach decides to make itself know. "Uh... I guess you would like to order something?" There´s a trace of laugh in the pregnant girl´s voice.

The embarrassment on Emma´s voice is quite clear to hear as well. "Yes, a hot cocoa with cinnamon and a french toast, please."

No use in eating much since she´ll be back here in a while, to wait for Henry and then walk him to school.

"In a moment."

Ashley puts the basket on the laundry machine and, like last time, the movement makes her pregnant belly visible. The moment she notices this, the girl turns to Emma and gives a small awkward smile while resting one hand on her belly.

"The contractions started last week and the doctor says the baby can come out anytime now."

"Well, that´s great."

The teenager nods her head and starts to walk away from the room. Emma knows she may possibly be the one who influenced Ashley to keep the baby. The motivational speech should be coming right now, but…the time is wrong. It´s supposed to be tomorrow, not today.

"It´s hot cocoa with cinnamon, right?" Ashley is turning to her when Emma makes the decision. If their conversation is happening today, maybe Alexandra will be born tomorrow. That means that Emma might not have time to make that motivational speech, after all. And no way in hell, Emma Swan will be responsible for a kid growing up parentless (like she did).

"Hey, what´s the matter?"

At first, it seems like Ashley will say that nothing is wrong, but something on Emma´s face must have convinced her to tell the truth.

"It's just that, um, when the… When the baby comes, no one thinks that I can do this. No one thinks I can do anything. Maybe they're right."

"Screw them"

"What?"

"Screw them. You´re what? Nineteen?"

Ashley nods her head.

"Well, I was eighteen. Believe me, I know what is like. Everyone loves to tell you what to do, especially with a kid. But they don´t know what you can´t or can do. You do. And that´s why the choice to do or to give up it´s yours."

Even if sometime later you found out that your kid wasn´t adopted by a nice family like you hoped. And the guilty you´re gonna feel will be so enormous, that you´re going to spend the rest of your life trying to make it up.

"It´s not exactly what you might think it is."

"It never is. People are going to tell you who you are your whole life. You just got to punch back and say, 'no, this is who I am.' You want people to look at you differently? Make them. If you want to change things, you're going to have to go out there and change them yourself, because there are no fairy godmothers in this world."

\-/

Emma Swan isn´t sad. She´s completely and utterly focused on the task at hand as she should be. So what if Graham hadn´t appeared at Granny´s? It´s not like the only reason she goes to the dinner is to see him. Of course not. Ok, before this whole time travelling business, she didn´t used to go at Granny´s in a specific time (and she still doesn´t!). It just so happened, that she found out that the food is best served at early morning, more precisely before 7:15, and if that´s the time the sheriff goes eat his breakfast before opening the station…Well, it´s just an incredible minor bonus. Really.

Graham may have had an emergency call or something of that nature. It´s not like he suddenly realized that his usual time is also Emma´s usual time, and decides to go eat early or later than normal in order to avoid her.

Right?

When the blonde realizes that she´s been biting her nails while walking, she lets a frustrated sigh. Emma needs to calm down in order to do what she´s about to do. She can´t show any sign that she´s nervous.

Breathe in. Breathe out. You have all the cards now, no need to worry. Breathe in. Breathe out. Everything is gonna work it out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

The sound of sirens almost makes Emma trips over nothing. Sometimes, she´s not as graceful as her surname led people to believe.

When the squad car stops close to her, the blonde has to control the relieved sigh that wants to escape her lips. Instead, she grins and repeats her lines from one of her favorite moments with the sheriff.

"What´s with the sirens?"

"It´s so hard to get your attention." Graham gets out of the squad car and it´s only when she sees him, walking in her direction, breathing and so very alive that Emma feels like she´s breathing properly again.

"Well, you got it." The blonde is crossing her arms again; her usual method to try not to touch the sheriff, but there´s a small smile on her voice and her posture is relaxed. "Are you wrongly arresting me again?"

"You never gonna stop accuse me of wrongly arrest you, right?" Graham´s voice takes a mocking suffer tone.

"Until you admit that I´m right I´m never gonna leave you alone."

"You´re just giving me reasons to insist that I did the right thing, Emma."

She automatically opened her mouth to continue the bickering when what he told her sink in. Her mouth closes with a soft pop and Emma feels the blood start rushing to her cheeks.

She didn´t remind Graham being _that _bold before.

"Actually, I´m not here to arrest you." The sheriff seems to have take pity on her, still he didn´t bother to concede the pleased smirk on his face. "I´m here to thank you, not only for your help on finding the town´s Prince Charming, but also for that tip about the tapes."

Emma is glaring at him and wishing for that smirk to disappear. Unfortunately, it only grew bigger.

"Did you find anything then?" There´s a few traces of irritation on the blonde´s voice.

"I didn´t finish the analysis yet, but it´s clear now that the tape was doctored."

"So what do I get as a thank you? The city key?" _ You, naked, with a red bow on your neck? Dammit, Emma, you´re irritated with him and not lusting after him._

If he noticed something odd about the expression on her face, the sheriff didn´t comment on it.

"How about a job? I could use a deputy."

Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes.

"You want a woman who you arrested twice as your deputy?"

"Why not? There´s not much for you to do here as a bails bond person and it´s obvious you will be good on the job."

"I don´t see a lot of sheriffing going on around here, either."

Graham sighs, take his wallet out and opens it. "Why don´t you see it for yourself?" He hands her a small card and when she turns it, Emma sees the still familiar number printed on it.

For a moment, the blonde considers giving him the card back and telling him that she doesn´t need it. And she really doesn´t. Emma never forgot the sheriff´s number, because after his death, she spent weeks calling just so she could hear his voice on the voicemail.

Graham apparently interprets her silence as a negative answer. "There´s dental?" That made Emma smirk a little, even if only because of how adorable dork the sheriff can be. "Think about it. Stay a while."

The last phrase is said in an almost pleading way.

"I will."

Emma´s answer is soft and for a moment, they seem to be locked in a pretty heavily stare. Emma´s self preservations instincts kick in when she sees the sheriff moving a little closer.

"I have to keep going so…"

"Right." Graham moves to the side to let her pass and God, they are acting like teenagers again, aren´t them? "I see you tomorrow at Granny´s!"

The blonde is walking out when she hears his parting line, and she turns around. "Yeah, see you there."

Thanks to that little encounter is a calmer Emma Swan that enters Gold´s pawn shop. Of course, something had to happen because the universe doesn´t want Emma Swan calm and happy. The something, this time, was an innocent looking mobile with glass unicorns.

Emma´s mobile.

The mobile that David and Mary Margaret took away from the pawn shop, and give it to her with red eyes. There was a story there, Emma could see it, but she never heard it. Because at the time it was too much, too soon, and she buried herself with work at the station. The next day she had time traveled.

"See something you like, Miss Swan?"

There´s a lump in her throat that it´s hard to swallow; still her voice is eerily calm when she answered.

"Yes, how long have you had this mobile?"

Gold´s smile is amused. It´s an expression Emma used to see a lot, but can only now comprehend it. Rumpelstiltskin always used that smile when she did something to remind him of her parents or when she did things like ask about her baby mobile.

"Oh, this old thing? It´s been gathering dust in the shop for…twenty eight years, I believe"

You believe? Yeah, right.

"But I would never think of you as the type to be interested in an old mobile, Miss Swan."

That´s all right, Emma. Breathe in. Breathe out. You can play this game. Breathe in. Breathe out. Your family is counting on you. Breathe in. Breathe out. The whole town is counting on you. Breathe in. Breathe out. You can do this.

"Neither would I, but there´s something really…_charming_ about it."

If she was not paying such close attention, Emma would miss the momentary freezing of Gold´s smirk and the slight frowning of his eyebrows.

"Well, charming is certainly one word to describe it."

Why did she thought that Gold would drop the act so quickly again? Oh yeah, because she stupidly thought something could be easy for her just once.

Right.

If subtly won´t work, it´s time to get really blunt.

"I need some answers, Rumpelstiltskin."

At that moment, Emma´s pretty sure she could brag that she may be the only one (or one of the few?) who has ever saw the Dark One surprised, and also be responsible for the surprised reaction.

Obviously, it only took a minute and then Gold´s face was expressionless as always.

And she didn´t even had time to grab her cell phone, much least take a photo.

Dammit.

"I have to say I´m impressed, Miss Swan. Of course, I don´t know what should impresses me more…your boy´s power of convincement of your faith on him."

"You didn´t plan that, did you?" Gold´s eyebrow raised in a question manner. It was said like a question, but the tone was of an affirmation. "Me believing in the curse so early."

"No, I can´t say that I did. I wasn´t that hopeful." His hand seems to be clenching his cane with more force than normal. Rumpelstiltskin´s knuckles are white. "But rest assured, Miss Swan, that I do want you to break this curse."

"Oh, I do know that."

The silence that came after that little statement was overwhelming. For a second, Emma had to remember that there was no magic in this world, because she could swore that Gold was trying to read her mind.

She knows Rumpelstiltskin can see the future, so for all she knows it´s plausible that he´s a mind reader too. Either that or she´s becoming paranoiac.

"You can ask your questions, but I´ll only answer if I want, dearie."

The "dearie" is something that she only heard Gold call her once, when the curse was broken. Apparently, if he ever used that word before it would be a dead giveaway.

"Ok. Fair warning, though, if you´ll lie to me I will know."

The blonde´s hands itches to punch the smirk that appeared again, out of the bastard´s face.

"Fire away, your highness."

She knows what she should ask. The question is on the tip of her tongue, but there´s another question that has bother her for quite some time now. Since she found out that Rumpelstiltskin was the first one to say she was the savior, to tell the truth.

"Why me? Why did you make ME the savior?"

(She´s nothing special. She´s no one´s hero.)

"I didn´t made you into anything, dearie. Your parents' true love did."

That was not the answer she was expecting. Sure, she didn´t knew what she was expecting exactly, maybe something along the lines of I-made-a-mistake-you´re-not-special-i´m-sorry-the-real-saviour-is-insert-name-here or something like that.

"I´m sorry?"

"You´re the product of true love, and true love is the only magic powerful enough to break any curse."

Right. Because that made complete and total sense.

"So you chose me because of who my parents are?"

"Do you know how rare true love is, your highness?" There´s a certain amount of bitterness on his voice when he questions her.

Emma shakes her head and the pawn owner smiles. It´s obvious that that was the answer he was expecting, but there´s something more. There´s something so broken in his smile and an almost insane glint on his eyes, that makes her think that this is the closest to Rumpelstiltskin that Mr. Gold ever came. It confuses her for just an instant. Then she remembers.

_Belle_.

Of course.

"Despise the wrongly assumptions this world made of us, in our land not everyone had a happy ending or founded their true love. And on the rare occasion that happened, they lost it much more easily than they found it." The knuckles on the hand holding the cane are white again. "In all my years I only met three beings that were the product of true love. One was dead before Regina was even known as the Evil Queen."

Emma interrupts him. "And the other?"

"Originally, she was supposed to be the one who would break the curse. Unfortunately, I was not the only one who realized what she was and all her potential."

"She died?"

"No, I believe she´s still alive. But things happened, your highness, and I was beginning to think that no one would ever be able to break the curse. Mind you, I was already starting to think of other ways, but then…then I met your parents. I assume you know how the story goes now."

"So I´m your backup plan?"

"You are whoever you wish to be, dearie."

Philosophical pearls of wisdom brought to you by Mr. Gold, the one and only Rumpelstiltskin, also known as the Dark One.

Right.

Maybe it´s time to change gears.

"Ok. What´s supposed to happen when the curse is broken?"

If he was surprised by the quick change of directions, Gold didn´t show. "I like your confidence. The happy endings are restored, of course." The last part was said with a flourish and all the dramatics one would expect of a con man.

"You just said not everyone had a happy ending in the Enchanted Forest."

"Well, here´s the beauty of the curse I created." Rumpelstiltskin´s voice is like that of a kid wanting to show his last totally genius art work. "Something so evil, like the curse, has to be balance out. Ying and Yang. Good and Evil. So, after the curse is broken even the one who didn´t had a happy ending to be stolen, shall now have one."

Isn´t that what she saw after the curse was broken? Everyone was reunited with their families and friends, with their loved ones. Everyone except Graham. The only one of them who had no one to be reunited with, the Huntsman who no one cared for.

In the end, the only person to blame Emma for his death, for not saving him, was the savior herself.

It was Emma who wanted to be reunited with him, at least just one more time, and Emma who cared for him more than even she thought possible.

"Even if the person is dead?"

Maybe, just maybe, she can actually change the future. Maybe, the reason she time travelled was to save Graham´s happy ending. The last happy ending.

"That depends."

The blonde seems to growl the next words. "I need a better answer."

"And you shall have one. For a price, of course."

"_Of course._ Why did I expect anything different?"

So, that was his game. Answer enough questions to make her realize that he does have the answers, and then choose to not answer the question she is more desperate about.

Brilliant manipulative old bastard.

"What do we say, dearie? Do we have a deal?"

"Yes. We have a deal."

"Excellent. You owe me a favor, then."

And here is where Emma shows that she´s a player in this game as well, not a mere observant. Furthermore, she´s a good player.

"Not really. I´m sure I can just get you something you want."

One of Gold´s eyebrows is raised, but the smug smile that was there since they made the deal, is still firmly on his face.

"I´m listening."

"Belle."

The cane on his hand starts shaking. Rumpelstiltskin is obviously shaking with suppressed anger. Emma had only seen him so out of control once, when he was beating the life of Moe French´s.

He doesn´t scream on her face, but he sure came close to it. "She´s dead!"

"How can you be so sure? Because_ Regina_ told you that?"

Gold´s eyes narrow a little. In that instant, the savior can finally understand why he was once described as the most dangerous being in all the realms.

"Explain yourself, Miss Swan."

Of course, Emma never seems to have a god grasp on the meaning of the word dangerous before.

"With pleasure. But I will expect the same courtesy."

\-/

It takes a random woman´s annoyingly knowing smile, to make Emma realize what the scene in front of her looks like. There are three people on Granny´s having breakfast, each one of them has a cup with hot cocoa spiked with cinnamon. On the same booth there´s a woman and a little boy in a school uniform and across from them there´s a man with a sheriff badge. The little boy is telling the adults about his last science class, and both the man and the woman are behaving like there´s nothing more interesting then dinosaurs on the world.

Oh God.

They look like a family.

They look like a family in a freaking commercial or a TV show.

When did that happened?

"Emma? Emma?"

Her son´s voice reaches her ears (Her _son_) and Emma stares at him while trying to forget her little epiphany.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, kid. I´m ok." Her smile is a flimsy one at best, but hey, at least she tried, right?

Unfortunately judging by Henry´s face, she didn´t do a good job.

"You seem to be thinking really hard about something." Graham´s voice is quiet and comforting like always, and it helps subsided her panic a little.

So what if they look like a family? Emma has more important things to worry about, like how to break a dark curse and how to keep the man in front of her alive.

"You´re worried about Cinderella?"

Or you know, worry about a young pregnant princess for example.

"Cinderella?" The sheriff raises one of his eyebrows and is clearly looking for an explanation.

"There´s this girl I met yesterday here, on the dinner and Henry think that she must be Cinderella."

"She has a stepmother and stepsisters that she doesn´t get along with." The boy uses a very matter of fact tone while saying that.

"So, Cinderella is in trouble?" Graham asks while taking a sip of his hot cocoa.

Well, considering that she made a deal with Rumpelstiltskin and not only he remembers it, but his price is her baby; I would say she´s in a lot of trouble right now.

"Kind of." Emma shrugs and eats the last of her bacon.

"But you´re worried about her." The sheriff says.

Only a little, she wants to say, I´m pretty positive Gold will accept my offer. I am more worried about _you_, Graham. Do you know that I bought a m_agical_ wooden little box yesterday from Gold? Yeah, I´m the only one who can open it, because the box actually _recognizes_ it´s owner. And no, I´m not hiding the royal jewels on that box, I´m hiding your _hea_rt so Regina can´t _crush_ it.

"Yeah, she seems to be having a hard time." It´s what she actually says, even despite the lump that appears on her throat.

"Well, she wouldn´t be Cinderella if she didn´t, I guess." He smiles while saying that and Emma hands curls with a little more force around her cup.

On her right, Henry is looking like he´s watching a tennis match, looking at her and then at Graham with this smile on his face that unnerves her more than a bit.

"C´mon kid, let´s walk you to the bus."

It´s not the first time Emma walks Henry to the bus, it´s not even the first time Graham walks with them either. Still, it´s the first time that the blonde realizes how much they look like a family and that makes the walk a little uncomfortable.

"So, we gonna make a play for Christmas." Henry´s voice is way too casual about it, but it´s something to take her out of her thoughts and Emma will take it.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it´s gonna be a modern version of A Christmas Carol."

The boy´s voice is so resigned when he says it that the two adults share a little worried look.

"What´s wrong then?" The sheriff asks. "You don´t like the story?"

"Nah it´s fine."

"But?" While asking the blonde is already making a mental note to ask Mary Margaret, if Henry doesn´t tell them what is bothering him.

"Oliver Gilmore suggested it and everyone loved it."

That says nothing to Emma, but apparently it does to Graham since he says a quite oh after that.

"And what did you suggested it?"

They already see the school bus, and the cacophony of sounds emitted by the children and their parents makes it a little hard to hear Henry´s answer.

"I suggested it a new version of Snow White."

Emma thinks she knows where this is going but she still asks anyway. "And what it would be new about it?"

Henry is already stepping into the bus when he turns to answer it. "It would show the story of Snow White´s daughter."

The bus already turned the corner when Graham turns to her. "So that means your story, huh?"

The smirk on the sheriff´s face seems to only increase her blush.

"You know?"

"Henry told me." The smirk grows exponentially. "It seems I was right after all, princess"

Emma´s pretty sure that by now her face resembles a tomato. Why she´s blushing so much since she time travelled?

"I would prefer if you call me Emma." A beat. "Or deputy."

"I´m sorry but I think princess suits you so…" She can see the moment he realizes what she said, because he stops mid sentence and his eyes widen a little. "I´m sorry what?"

"The offer is still open, right?" The blonde´s voice is a little nervous. Maybe he changed his mind since yesterday?

"Ofcourse." Graham speaks so fast that it ends up sounding like one word and it makes Emma smiles. The sheriff clears his throat before speaking again in a more slow and comprehensive voice. "That means that you accept it?"

"Yes. Why? Did you think that I would say no to you?"

Graham is blushing a little (she doesn´t know how much because the beard hides it.) and when she realizes how what she says could be interpreted as, so is Emma.

"The possibility may have crossed my mind, but I was hoping you say yes."

"I did, I mean, I do."

And of course she does. Emma really can´t think of anything Graham could ask her that she would feel the need to say no.

She´s in really trouble, isn´t she?

\-/

She´s late and it´s all Regina´s fault, though to be honest what isn´t Regina´s fault? Emma didn´t lunch on Granny´s to avoid Regina´s threats and the damm woman end up knocking on her door. The temptation to tell the Queen that she´s wrong was really hard to fight, Emma doesn´t run (not anymore) and she _has_ roots. Storybrooke is her _home_.

She could, she _should_, have said all that. She still didn´t. Why? Well, the hospital has visitor hours and she wants to see him. By him, she means David Nolan, her father, Prince Charming.

God, that was still too weird.

Sure, the hospital visitor hours are kind of long, they just aren´t if you waiting to pick a pregnant princess going into labor in the middle of the road.

(She has to let some things happen like before, otherwise the time line will differ and her future knowledge will be for nothing.)

Besides, she´s worried (when she´s not worried these days?). Taking Graham´s heart, in the literal and not metaphorical kind of way, was the biggest change she´s done yet, but not the only one. Emma has take steps to prevent that whole Kathryn/David/Mary Margaret mess to happen. The little, but insistent, paranoiac part of her, insists on checking on David. Because what if Regina found out that her and Graham have the original tapes, and decide to do something against her father in her never ending crusade to destroy her mother´s happiness?

And…There´s also the fact that she knows her mother. Ok, maybe not as well as she should, but she has spent a lot of time with Mary Margaret, Emma was her roommate, her best friend! While David…The truth is, she spent so much time hating the guy (or trying to hate him and not knowing why she couldn´t) that she knows close to nothing about her own father.

So, she decides to change that.

Of course, that doesn´t mean that the moment that she sees him, hunched over what appears to be a Sudoku, she won´t want to turn and bolt for that place. That is, before he suddenly looks up and smiles when he sees her.

"Hey, Emma."

(She knows he can´t remember her. She knows it´s unrealistic to hope. She still does anyway. Can you blame her? Besides he called her by name.)

"Your name is Emma, right?"

Of course. It really was too much to ask.

The smile that she gives him is small and more than a bit sad. Mary Margaret and Graham didn´t remembered her either and Henry doesn´t call her mom, so what makes her thought that David would? Wishful thinking?

"Yeah." An awkward pause. "How did you know that?"

"The hospital´s staff told me." David´s smile is still present in his voice, but his voice starts to take a more uncomfortable tone. "Because you were in the search party who found me." Seeing the blonde´s silence and clearly hesitance at entering his room, the amnesic patient tried again. "I´m not a creepy, I promise."

This time the smile was more genuine.

"I know."

_You´re not a creepy. You´re my dad. _

There´s such convincement in her voice that his eyebrow raises a little at that.

"You just don´t seem the type." Another awkward pause. God, it shouldn´t be this hard to talk to your own father. And that´s the truth of the matter. It _shouldn´t_ be hard, but _it is_. "So, how are you?"

"As good as any amnesic patient, I guess."

"No memory yet then?"

"If they hadn´t told my name, I wouldn´t even remember that."

She laughs a little but stops when she sees her father´s face. David´s seems so pleased with himself but also a little awed. In the corner of her mind she hears Ruby´s voice saying that Emma has the same laugh as Snow. By the way, Charming´s face expression in nothing resembles that of a certain sheriff. In absolutely _nothing_.

"And how´s the physical therapy coming?"

Charming cringes while he answers. "To be honest, I don´t know what I hate more. The physical or the mental therapy."

(And for a moment he resembles Henry so much that it hurts a little.)

"With that answer I can conclude that you´re not a man who likes to sit still for too long."

"It seems that way, doesn´t it?"

"Don´t worry, before you know you´ll be out of here and riding horses."

The sword wielding will have to wait a bit more, I think.

"I´m not sure if I know how to ride a horse."

"Something tells me that you do."

\-/

_It isn´t fair. _

It´s a selfish thought that Emma can´t stop from crossing her mind when she sees Sean Herman, Prince Thomas, enter the hospital room. Alexandra and she were supposed to be the same age. Emma used to think all the time about how it would be to grow up with parents, somehow she never wished for a best friend since fetuses thing. But all seems to point that she and Alexandra would be like that.

Just another thing that Regina´s stole from her. A best friend. Someone she would grow up with, share secrets and trust implicitly. Another thing she never had, but that she was supposed to.

Oh, and don´t forget the fact that her probably best friend´s parents weren´t stolen from her. Sure, for a moment it looked like Alexandra would grow up without them too but the fact is that she won´t now.

Damm, Emma´s twenty-eight and she´s suppose to have got over the fact that she was parentless all her life. But she never did. Sure, she stopped believing she would ever find her parents, that doesn´t mean she has ever stopped wishing.

"Emma? Everything´s ok?"

Even if the accent wasn´t a dead giveaway, the tenderness of the voice would be. As would the gentle hand on her shoulder and all the feelings it invokes.

"Yeah, everything´s all right. Just saw Sean enter the room." She´s about to say more but the look in his eyes stops her short. There´s concern in there sure and maybe even a healthy dose of worry, but what makes her pause is the other unidentified emotion on it.

It makes the words get stuck on her throat and her eyes seem glued to his. For a fleeting moment, Emma´s positive that Graham will hug her and her skin tingles in anticipation. It´s still just a moment, a fleeting one, and it´s over before it even begins.

"I have to go back to the station, do you want a lift?"

"No, I will be here for a while."_ I´m waiting to have a chat with Gold_. "I think I´m gonna try and convince Ashley to changes her mind with the middle name."

The teenager princess had been extremely grateful for all that Graham and Emma did to her. So grateful, in fact, that she decided to name her daughter Alexandra Emma.

"All right then, but for the record I think Emma is a beautiful name." Graham squeezes her shoulder a little and finally moves his hand away. "See you monday on your first day on the job?"

More like the second first day on the job.

"See you there, sheriff."

When he walks away, the blonde let out a small sigh of relief. Sometimes it´s easy to see the repercussions of the changes she made, there are times trough, that she has no idea what she´s done that made some things different. Alexandra´s birthday is a good example, for some reason the girl was born on a different day this second time around. And she may have some ideas, but she´s still not entirely sure, what made Graham be the one to help her track down Ashley and take her to the hospital.

Still, as glad as she was for his help and even if some small part of her wanted his comforting presence on her side, Emma is relieved that he´s heading back to the station. If she´s gonna have another revealing chat with Gold, she prefers if the sheriff is not close to presence it.

(That has nothing to do with her fear that the pawn owner will realize her feelings for Graham though.)

"The sheriff is right. Emma is a beautiful name, don´t you think?"

And speaking of the devil…

"You would think that."

Rumpelstiltskin´s smile is a tight one and he´s holding a cup of coffee when he approaches Emma. The blonde highly doubts it that the coffee is the really horrid one from the hospital.

"Oh, and thank you for the warning, Deputy Swan."

So he figured out from the conversation that Emma is gonna be the town´s new deputy, huh?

"It´s not official yet and I did warn you." The last thing she wants is from one of Regina´s minions hear him and warn the Queen.

"Watch out for you head?" There´s a heavily incredulous tone on his voice. For a moment, Emma expects Gold to say "really?" in the most sarcastic tone possible.

"Maybe not with so many words." Gold is not the only one who can do sarcasm.

"Miss Boyd could have given me a concussion."

Yeah, right.

The blonde manages to not roll her eyes but she still scoffs at him. "I need to let certain things happen so my knowledge won´t become unuseful. You should know that."

And here´s the return of the tight smile. "Very well."

There´s a few minutes of silence and he really won´t approach the heart of the matter, will he? It seems like Emma will have to do that. Again.

"The deal with Ashley is off by the way."

This time it´s the pawn owner who scoffs. "Yeah, you see, that´s what _you _told her…I never say anything about it."

"It´s what you want, right? That I own you a favor. That´s a way of you getting that."

"Who would know?" There´s another of Gold´s theatrical´s pause. "You _are_ perceptive, Miss Swan."

"Just…" Well, now Emma knows the exactly danger of owning a favor to that man. And when she breaks the curse, she´ll need to know how to restore a stolen heart. Owning Rumpelstiltskin a favor she can deal with, but owning two favors? "If I got Belle to you, I won´t own anything, right?"

Something flashes behind Rumpelstiltskin´s eyes and the hand on his crane tights. "I thought you didn´t knew where she was."

"I don´t." And she really doesn´t have any idea where the mayor is keeping Belle prisoner. "But if you and I go looking she´s bound to be found much faster."

There´s a long pause where Emma feels like Gold is scrutinizing her. And then…

"All right. If you bring me Belle our deal is done." The corner of his lips turns up and it´s nothing like his other thin veiled smiles. Emma is pretty sure there´s that the most genuine smile she ever saw on him (not counting the one that was permanently on his face after the curse was broken. When he had Belle back). And is that amusement on his eyes? "After all, finding people seems to be a family trend."

\-/

Moe French.

Mother deceased (according to book).

No siblings.

Friends? Possibly Mulan and Philipp (BUT WHERE ARE THEY?).

Emma stared at her written words. Where are they indeed? The book didn´t get her much information on Belle, well, there was a lot about her sure, but practically nothing useful. The only friends the girl seems to have are Mulan and Philipp and Emma´s almost sure that they are not in Storybrooke. Three days sometimes doesn´t seem a lot, but it was enough for Emma to learn every single real name of the habitants of the once cursed town. No kidding. Between the innumerous applications of divorce, requests to have their child back and criminal charges it was kind of hard not to learn. Besides Mulan and Philipp are easy fairytale names to remember thanks to Disney.

Sure, there´s still the possibility that she doesn´t know the real names of some people in town, but it´s a little improbable. So, that brings the question of if they´re not in Storybrooke where would they be?

A knock at her door makes her hurried hide her very few notes about Belle.

"Can I come in?'

Mary Margaret is holding the door in one hand, and holding two cups of hot cocoa with cinnamon´s sticks in, on the other.

"Hey, Mare! Of course you can."

The teacher´s smile is a little relieved and it hurts Emma´s heart just a little. Her mother shouldn´t be hesitant around her. Dear Lord, is it just her or this whole time traveling business made her extremely sentimental?

"It´s late, you should go to bed because you´re gonna have a big day tomorrow." Mary Margaret says to her while sitting on the edge of the bed and handing her a cup of cocoa.

The brunette sound so motherly when she says it that it makes Emma wonder, even if just for a little while, how many drinking cocoa nights before a big day with her mother she should have. Her first day on kindergarten, and all her other first days in school. Her first date. Her first job interview. Her moving out to college day

"Yeah." Her voice sounds weird to her own ears, so the blonde tries again. "It´s gonna be a big day."

Damm. She has just recovered from that hospital visit and now this? It´s just a freaking phrase that it shouldn´t give her that many feelings.

Maybe she´s PMS?

"Are you excited for it?" Mary Margaret asks while taking a sip of her coca, apparently completely oblivious to the turbulence of feelings Emma is experimenting.

"Yes, Yes I am." And Emma is really excited about it. She´s going back to a work that she found out she loves it, and she´s gonna work alongside Graham again. "Even if I never thought of a career in law enforcement."

"Really? But why?" The teacher sounds genuinely confused about it.

The blonde takes a sip from her cocoa (stalling time) before responding. "Me and the justice system are not good friends. I was in jail, remember?"

"When you were a teenager, besides you always strike me as someone who would fight for justice and help people." The school teacher smiles at the blonde´s surprised expression. It´s a little sad that Emma can´t see the wonderful person that she is.

Sighing softly, Mary Margaret stands up to go and is already by the door when she turns.

"If you get up early then me again, hope you have a great first day at work tomorrow!"

There´s something in the way she says that that should makes Emma a little wary, but the blonde is still reeling from what the school teacher had said before. Someone who fights for justice and help people, huh? Well, that´s exactly what she´s doing right now.

With a sigh as well, Emma stands up to get ready for bed and takes the empty cup back to the kitchen. Mary Margaret is right, she needs to sleep because she´s gonna have a big day tomorrow. But not just because it will be her second first day at the sheriff station, not because it seems that she´s going to spend a whole day with Graham.

Walking away in the direction of the kitchen, the blonde´s eyes fall on the little notebook tucked under a pillow. She had written down the most useful information she has to find Gold´s True Love, but she didn´t wanted to use it unless it was necessary. Well, if she wants to find Belle faster it seems she will have to pay a visit to the one who freed the girl the first time. This time, Emma swears she won´t drink or even eat anything that´ll be offered to her. And she´s gonna hide a knife, to cut anything that might tied her up, just in case.

/-\

**A/N: I´m really**_** really **_**sorry for the delay, right now is the calm before the storm, also known as the time before finals, so I got a little more time. And even if I know where the story is going, I found out some changes I´ve done end up changing the path of the story a little, so I had to rewrite some scenes.**

**On another note, It´s has been a long time since I posted anything on this site, so at the beginning I was too confused with the changes the site done on how to post the stories. But then I thought I had got the hang of things pretty well till I reread some of the chapters that I posted on the site. Let me just tell you that I´m convinced that thing hates me. Not only it swallow up entire words like some of the mistakes that I corrected on the Word doc never show up at all and God only knows why!**

**I thought of taking time and edit the whole thing, but then it would take even longer for me to post another chapter. So, I decided that after I finish the story I´ll come back and edit. Do you guys prefer that or for me to edit and then update the rest of the fic?**

**Sorry for the long author's note! As always, thank you so very much for all the reviews, favorites and likes! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, even with the delay, and tell me what you thought about it!**


	5. Keeping my hopes unbroken

_A/N: Hey guys! Well, I guess by now it´s kind of obvious that I update this fic every almost two months or so, huh? I do try to update quickly, but I never seem to be able to for some reason. But look at that, this chapter is actually a little longer than the other ones, 1.000 words more than my usual I guess. As always, a HUGE thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorite or followed the story. I´m so glad that you all seem to like it! Ok, disclaimer is in the prologue, I´m sorry for this big author's note and any grammar mistakes (but please don´t hesitate to point them for me, ok?), further information at the end of the chapter and I hope you all enjoy the read! Ah! And the song this time is Your Love is a Song by Swicthfoot._

**Chapter Four: Keeping my hopes unbroken.**

_I hear you breathing in__  
_

_Another day begins_

_The stars are falling out__  
__My dreams are fading now, fading ou_

_t__I've been keeping my eyes wide open__  
__I've been keeping my eyes wide open_

Sometimes things don´t go as planned, that is something Emma Swan had know for quite a while now(Tallahassee anyone?) and something she was mostly ok with it. Emma had always been pretty good at improvising after all. But sometimes, there are things that you desperately need to go as it was planned. On the grand scheme of things, the visit that she was planning isn´t that important. Sure, it would probably make things easier, but the important thing right now is finding Belle.

She should go to the mansion on the hill today and have, what she hopes to be, a very illuminating talk with its owner. That was the plan. Of course, yesterday the plan was to go to bed earlier, so she would be rested for the confrontation that it's sure to follow her little visit. Judging by the way she´s with her head resting between her folded arms in her new/old deputy table, you can see how well that plan went.

At the beginning of the day things were going well. She had breakfast with Henry and Graham at Granny´s like always. Then they walked the kid to school and went to the station together for the first time this time around. The sheriff was supposed to explain to his deputy what exactly her new job entitled. Of course, the thing is Emma already knew how things work. She knows how to do the paperwork, how to deal with Leroy and to ignore Miss Ginger´s calls about Pongo. Not the she would tell that to her boss.

So, what happened was that the blonde passed the day pretending that all the information that Graham was telling her was actually something new. Not that she minded exactly, since she spent the day paying attention to Graham. She didn´t listen to his words, but she did pay attention to the cadence of his voice and his accent. She really loves the way he says her name.

She loves his eyes too, and dedicated a big part of the morning to watch them. What color was that anyway? It should be illegal for someone to have eyes like that. They seemed to be blue, but there was times she could swore they were green. The expression 'ocean eyes' seems to fit them well.

Graham´s addicted voice and ocean eyes weren't the only parts of the sheriff´s body that she happily ogled that day. There were his hands too and his well toned arms. On the afternoon, after a lunch of Indian food, there was his very kissable mouth, his curly hair (that she resisted the urge to mess it), and his backside. Basically, her first day on the job was spent ogling the boss. Not very classy, to be honest, but inevitable when you are working with someone that looks like Graham does. Besides, when she will have another chance like that?

By the end of the afternoon though, she was exhausted. The lack of a good night of sleep had finally caught up with her, and she groaned aloud at the thought of going to have that illuminating little chat with Jefferson. You need energy when dealing with the crazy after all. Energy that a good night of sleep, like one she hasn't be able to have in awhile, would give you.

She tried. She really, really tried. But the nightmares didn´t stopped just because now Graham´s heart is in a clearly more safe location. They did get more creative though (Like Regina taking Emma´s heart instead, and forcing her to kill Graham, Mary Margaret and David).

Emma could say that the nightmares are a side effect of the time travelling, but it´s something she really doesn´t believe in it. In the last year, nightmares became practically a daily occurrence in her life, to the point she found herself considering buying a dream catcher (even with the definitely not so great memories attached to the object) just to see if they would stopped it. At the beginning, all her nightmares involved Graham´s death, but with time she starts dreaming about horrible fates to Mary Margaret as well. The heart in the box that Ruby found it was Mare´s and not Kathryn´s, Emma would fail to prove the school teacher´s innocence and once she dreamed that Jefferson had killed her best friend when he kidnapped her.

In other words, Emma was used to function with as little sleep as possible. But even if she can´t say that the source of her nightmares is her trip to the past, that doesn´t mean that the whole thing didn´t increase the frequency of them. Quite actually, judging by Mary Margaret´s actions, she appears to be an insomniac. Her mother started to ask her if she would like warm milk before going to bed, complemented Chopin´s work in conversation and casually commented how is said that his music is so relaxing, and even offered her tea on breakfast instead of coffee. And she wasn´t the only one who noticed Emma´s tiredness.

Even if she was, technically speaking, taking a nap on her desk, the moment that she heard soft steps, Emma opened her eyes.

"Are you sure that you are Snow White´s daughter?" Graham had a shirt folded in his right arm and a mug on his left hand, when he got out of his office.

"According to Henry, yes I am." The blonde adjusted herself better in her chair. "Why? Don´t you think that I can only be the daughter of the fairest of them all?"

"Well, something tells me that you should be Sleeping Beauty´s daughter instead."

Yeah, there goes the hope that Graham didn´t noticed her taking a nap.

"It must be the blonde hair."

"Actually I wasn´t thinking of the resemblances." Emma lifted one eyebrow when she heard that, silently prompting the sheriff to continue his line of thinking. "It would just be more fitting, if you take in account the whole curse thing. You being Sleeping Beauty´s daughter would be extremely ironic."

Right. Time to change gears.

"What is this?" The blonde points to the folded shirt, even if she already has an idea.

Graham sighs softly when she clearly changes the direction of the conversation, but responds any way. "It´s a uniform." He throws the shirt in her direction, just when Emma is standing up.

The blonde catches and unfolds the shirt. "Certainly not mine." She makes a small ball of the shirt and throws at the desk.

"At least I tried." The sheriff says in a resigned tone to no one in particularly, before taking a badge from his pocket. "Now _this_ you gonna have to use it."

"It doesn´t offend my feminist convictions, so I don´t have a problem with that." She grins while taking the badge. At the same time, Graham gives her the mug he was holding and she holds it with her other hand.

"It´s for you." The grin on the sheriff´s face makes Emma´s heartbeats double in speed. "And let me guess, your feminist convictions are that you don´t need to dress a woman as a man to give her authority."

The blonde is about to take a sip of what appear to be tea that Graham give her, when she hears the words and freeze.

"What?" The sheriff furrows his eyebrows at her concerned. "Is it too hot or something?"

"No, it´s not that." The shaking of her head makes her curls bounce. "How do you know I would say that?"

"Because I know you." He shrugs trying to sound nonchalant, but Emma still sees the pleased smirk he tries to hide. "Besides, I think that you can get people to do what you want in that red coat anyway, so you won´t need the uniform. As long as you wear the badge of course."

Emma just stares at him blinking rather stupidly. That was weird. Way too weird. And Graham couldn´t know her that well, right?

"I hope you enjoy your tea." The sheriff says walking back to his office. He´s still smirking.

When she hears the door closing, the blonde takes a deep breath. It was nothing after all, just a freak occurrence. She leans on her desk, and traces with her fingers her deputy badge, still on her desk next to the balled up shirt. It´s official now. The moment she puts that badge, she will be Storybrooke´s deputy (again). And then the earth will shake and something will collapse on the mines.

The blonde sighs and takes her right hand back. She blinks and looks at the mug that she´s still holding. Graham normally gives her hot cocoa and not tea. Intrigued, and deciding to finish the tea before she puts her badge on, Emma takes a sip.

It´s chamomile.

\-/

"Everyone! Step back please!"

Regina´s voice is assured and authoritative like always. Distantly, Emma can hear the murmurs of the cursed fairy tales characters. It must have been quite a shock for them. For years, nothing changed in this small town and suddenly the clock is ticking again, coma patients are waking up and mines are collapsing.

(And that is just the beginning.)

"Sheriff, set up a police perimeter." Emma´s hands clench at her side. She hates to see Regina ordering Graham around, but she has to control her gut reaction to punch the woman on the face. Graham´s heart may be safe and it might look like the Queen has no idea of what happened. Still, there´s too much at stake at the moment for the blonde to risk at all just because of her deep desire to punch the woman. "Marco, why don´t you help with the fire department? Miss Swan, this is now town business. You´re free to go."

"Actually, Madam Mayor, I work for the town now." She has tried to conceal her smirk (ok, maybe she hadn´t tried that hard), but it was a lost cause.

Because here comes the moment that Emma has been waiting for all day long.

(It is one of her fondest memories of her early days on town.)

"She´s my new deputy." Graham´s accent is thicker when he says the words, and even if she has already heard the words before, it still manages to give Emma a giddy feeling.

(She doesn´t know it, but she´s grinning at the sheriff in a way that she hasn´t grin at a man before in more than 10 years.)

Regina´s voice breaks her little happy girlish bubble. "They said the Mayor is always the last to know."

Well, that must be because Mayors aren´t supposed to know everything that happens in their town. And they´re not supposed to be in power for decades either.

"It´s in my budget."

"Indeed." Lips turned downward, a barely visible frown. Regina may have tried, but her displeasure about the blonde´s new job is more than obvious. "Deputy, why don´t you make yourself useful and help with crowd control?"

So, that´s how it´s going to be. The Mayor will pretend that everything is all right. Well, it was what she has done the first time around, besides pretending should be as natural for Regina as breathing.

(She played that game with an entire town for about 28 years after all.)

Still, Emma does what she was told anyway (of course only after Graham nodded at her in agreement). The Queen is addressing the people present, trying to assure them that a mine collapsing is nothing. The words wash over the deputy´s ears like waves on the shore, she has heard them before and she has long ago learned that everything that comes from that woman´s mouth are lies. Until Henry emerges from the crowd, then she´s suddenly very interested in what Regina says.

"What´s down there?" Her son´s voice is anxious and Emma is reminded of what happened the first time around. Something that will not happen again. Because she has talked to Henry and the kid isn´t desperate for someone to believe in him (She believes in him).

"Nothing. Now step back." More lies. The blonde isn´t sure what exactly is hidden in the mines, but she knows that it´s definitely something. "In fact, everyone! Please, please step back. Thank you."

Emma frowns when she sees the Mayor picking up something from the ground (a piece of glass?), the first time she didn´t noticed the woman doing this. What was inside the mines anyway? After the curse was broken, she heard the dwarves were thinking of working on them again, but she´s not entirely sure.

She´s not the only one to notice it though. Henry immediately turns to her and whispers "What was that?" She has only time to shrug in response when Regina appears and makes Henry waits in the car (not that he´ll actually stay there for very long).

"Deputy Swan, Sheriff – cord off the area." And then the Mayor goes to the left to do God knows what (look for more glass pieces or whatever it is that she wants to hides it?).

It´s when Graham and Emma are taking the cord out that they hear Henry anxiously whisper. "Hey, Archie! Over here!" He makes a gesture for the sheriff and the deputy to follow him as well.

"This requires all of Operation Cobra. The tree of you." Henry says in a hushed voice and it has different and similar reactions on the adults.

Emma blinks a little owlish in her son´s direction. That was not how things went before, but the fact that the kid clearly cares about Graham does funny things to her heart. The sheriff is really touched and surprised with the fact that Henry counts him as part of his little Operation. There seems to be a lump in his throat that makes quite difficult for him to find the will to speak anything. And Archie appears to be as touched and surprised by Henry´s statement as Graham.

"I didn´t realized I was in Operation Cobra." The shrink says in a soft voice, the incredulously over the fact apparent in his face.

"Of course you are. You know everything." The boy sounds surprised when he says that, because it was something so obvious and adults are really dumb sometimes. "We can´t let her do this. What if there´s something down there?" Even if the question was supposedly to be for all three of them, Emma was certain the kid looked at her when he asked it.

"They´re just some old tunnels." Graham´s voice is calm and soothing, but for his deputy it sounded hollow. Like an echo.

Because she was the one who said these words before, right? But maybe she hadn't worded exactly like that.

(She had.)

"That just happened to collapse right after Emma gets here? She´s changing things. She´s weakening the curse."

Dr. Hopper cuts the defense of his theory though. "Henry…"

The boy though, turns to his biological mother and tries again. "Did you do anything different today? Cause something made that happens."

She sees Graham looking at her badge and she opens her mouth to say something (she´s not really sure what she would say exactly.), but Regina walks up to them before she´s able to.

"Henry, I told you to wait in the car." Yeah, like he would actually do that and not try to find out what the Evil Queen is hiding in the mines.

While her son is walking away Emma resolves to have another talk with him. She really doesn´t want him risking his life that way again.

"Deputy, Sheriff, do your job." The Mayor´s voice is cold and stiff and it reminded Emma of a storm brewing for some reason.

Of course, when she turns and sees the Queen talking with the shrink, she realizes why her voice reminded her of a storm brewing.

Maybe she should talk with Archie first, and then she would talk with Henry.

\-/

"Mary Margaret."

The woman in question groans when she hears Emma says the name. She hides her face in her hands because she doesn´t need David´s nod to realize that the blonde guessed right.

"Oh my God, I can´t believe I didn´t guessed my own name." The school teacher is not hiding her face in her hands anymore, and it´s quite clear that she´s embarrassed by what happened. "I would have hanged on my own name."

"Well, to be fair, Emma guessed pretty quickly. And I´m sure you would have guessed eventually." David´s smile is warm when he looks at the women. He has no idea why they make him feel so happy and in peace, he also has no name to the feeling on his heart when he sees them smiling at him like that.

"Yeah, Mare. I´m sure I would take a while to guess too. I´m just luck that I chose 'M'." Emma shrugs while smiling at her roommate. She´s not lying exactly, the blonde is pretty sure that she wouldn´t have guessed so quickly if she didn´t knew that Mary Margaret is David´s true love.

"Quite actually you seem to be pretty good at this." Her father says while pointing at their punctuation annotated on the paper. Emma won half of the rounds. "Did you play this game a lot?" There´s honest curiosity in his voice when he looks at her, but Emma´s smile freezes on her face.

She´s remembering wanting to play games (any game) with the kids, but not being able to because no one wanted to play with the girl who had no family. She´s remembering playing games with her best friend, whose name was Jen and who liked peanut butter sandwiches and rollerblades.

(She was imaginary.)

"Not much." She did play this game a lot during recess on her second grade. With her teacher. "And you? Is this a game you played a lot before?"

What kind of games existed on the Enchanted Forest anyway?

"I don´t know."

"It´ll come back." Mary Margaret´s voice is earnest and soothing at the same time. "They´re sending you home in a week. They have to think you´re progressing don´t they?"

"Physically." David´s face shows that he can´t really believe in what the brunette is saying. It makes something in Emma´s stomach turns, from the book and her three days when the curse was broken, it had been obvious that Charming is an optimist. One of these people who are just so certain that everything will turn out ok in the end.

David Nolan doesn´t appear to be an optimist.

"Well, you´re making new memories just fine."

That´s probably because he´s not an amnesiac patient in the normal sense of the word, Mare. He lost his memory, just like everyone else in this cursed town, but the difference is that he doesn´t have fake memories like the rest of you.

"Maybe I´ll like this better." Even if David said that while looking at both of them, he did gaze at Mary Margaret a little longer than normal (even for him).

"So, let´s play again?" Emma is already taking the paper from David´s hand while he and Mary Margaret continue to gaze at each other.

God, somehow when she thought of finding her parents again, Emma never imagined that they would act like star crossed lovers around each other. Seriously, she´s starting to feel like she´s in one of these romantic comedies that she used to scoff at.

Of course, as much as she wanted them to stopping acting all lovey dovey, that doesn´t mean she wants anything to interrupt this time she´s spending with her parents.

Or anyone.

"Can I guess, too?" Kathryn's voice is kind and she´s holding a box while she smiles at the trio.

The deputy wants to groan at the sight.

"Oh, Mrs. Nolan. I, uh..." The school teacher´s anxiety is visible to her roommate, but the daughter of King Midas doesn´t appear to found stranger (maybe it´s the curse?). "Oh, it´s noon already. I didn´t realize. I should go."

"Really, it´s already noon? Shoot! I need to patrol the city."Emma stands up along with her mother. It´s not that she doesn´t like Kathryn, but it´s one thing to see her parents acting all lovesick with each other, and it´s another thing entirely to watch someone else acting all lovesick around her father.

"Good day, Miss Blanchard and Deputy Swan."

The women smile at each other. Kathryn Nolan´s smile is sincere; Emma´s is too, along with being more than a little awkward, but Mary Margaret's is too small and too sad.

While walking away, the blonde squeezes the school teacher´s shoulder in sympathy. She can still hear the Nolan's´ voice. It looks like Kathryn bought photos in an attempt to make her husband remembers something.

"It´s our old dog, Ajax. Remember?"

On the corridor, Emma Swan frowns. Who the hell would name their dog Ajax?

\-/

The mansion is huge and Emma takes a deep breath when she sees it. Flashes of what happened the last time she was there passes on her mind, and when she realizes that she told Jefferson that he must have a huge family, she cringes.

Of course, she would probably feel more sorry for the faux pas if he hadn´t kidnapped her and Mary Margaret. And let´s not forget the whole drugging and tying her up thing.

Emma´s yellow bug is parked one mile from the mansion and she hopes no one notices her knocking on the mansion. The blonde decided to use her new habit of taking a run to her advantage after all. She´s pretty sure Regina knows that even if sometimes she takes a run on early mornings, her running at night it´s pretty much a ritual.

(She has learned that she sleeps better if she´s exhausted.)

"Hello? Is anybody in there?"

The thing is, in all her careful planning to not let Regina suspect a thing; she never counted that the failure of the plan would be because of the mad man himself. Ok, she understands that he´s a recluse, but she was so sure that the lure of the Savior would make, at the very least, he open the damn door.

She´s so busy with her thoughts, that she doesn´t hear the door opens. And even when the manor´s owner step in, she´s still lost in thought, her narrows eyes fixed on some point on the wall next to the door.

"Hello." Jefferson´s calm, but clearly surprised, voice interrupts her mentally swearing at the man in question, and stops her from gazing at the wall. "Can I help you?"

Uh. So she was right after all. Good to know.

"Yes, I´m looking for a lost dog. I was wondering if you have seen him."

Okay, maybe that was the excuse she used last time, but it was the only thing she could think of. Besides, he´ll learn pretty fast that there is no dog.

"Ah, then maybe that would make you the new Deputy?"

_Oh yeah, like you don´t know that already_, she thinks to herself, _like you haven´t been spying me since God knows how long._

She smiles at him in what she hopes is not a nervous manner. "The name is Emma."

"I´m Jefferson." They shake hands. "Sorry, I don´t think I saw the dog." Emma sighs and makes a move to go back. She´s positive that even without planning Jefferson won´t be able to let the opportunity pass. She´s right again. "Why don´t you come in? I´m a bit of an amateur cartographer, mapping the area is a hobby. Maybe I´ll have something that will help you track down the dog."

"Well, I guess it´s worth a try."

The Hatter is closing the door behind him, when Emma´s foot grazes the hidden knife on her boot. She´s determined to not be tied up this time.

"Here" Jefferson smiles and points at the white sofa in the luxurious living room. "Why don´t you rest a little? I´ll bring you the map to help the search for the dog."

"Actually, there is no dog." There´s a brief pause and the fact that she can´t see any amount of surprise on his eyes, makes Emma smirk a little. "But you already know that."

"Maybe." Another pause. For an outsider, it may look like they´re two opponents in some unknown battle, mentally measuring each other up. "What _really_ brings you here, Deputy? It´s not official town business I suspect."

"In a way, it is town business." A heavy pause. Dealing with the Mad Hatter it´s different from dealing with Rumpelstiltskin or the Evil Queen. "The curse. Isn´t that what you expect me to say?"

"And what does an outsider knows about the curse?" While speaking, Jefferson has moved closer to Emma, and by the end of his question, Emma can smells black tea on his breath.

Dear God, doesn´t the man understands the conceit of personal space? Or he´s trying to intimidate her?

_Tough luck, buddy._

"I´m not really an outsider and you know that. And the real question is what _you_ know about the curse, Jefferson?"

"I don´t know how to break it, so if that´s what you want to know…"

"It isn´t." The man raises one of his eyebrows. A silent question. "I already know how to do it."

"You do?" There´s a hush of black tea smelling breath, and in less than a second the man is painfully holding her arms and talking from a clenched jaw. "Then what are you waiting for?"

Ah, so there is the mad man that she briefly meets the first time.

There is the Mad Hatter.

Hello, Jefferson. It´s been a while.

"Because I would have to risk my son and that´s off limits." Emma takes a deep breath and looks straight into his eyes. "You can understand that, can´t you?"

"Yes. Yes I can."

Jefferson´s eyes are perturbed, and he let go of Emma and takes a step back.

(There will be bruises on her arms come morning)

More steps back.

A hand tugging at his hair and a bitter laugh.

"She will win. She will win in the end, even after all she´s done."

"No, she won´t." Emma takes the hand that is pulling his hair. Some strands fall on the expensive carpet. "I _won´t_ let her win. I _will_ break the curse." She let go of his hand and takes a step back as well. "There´s got to be another way."

The last phrase is said in a very soft, almost childlike, voice and for awhile there´s the only sound in the manor.

"If you can´t break the curse..." Jefferson´s voice sounds loud and raspy. "…then I need to get away from here. I need to go back home."

There´s a calculating glint in his eyes and he´s trembling a little. The movement that his hands makes, reminds Emma of him sharpening that pair of scissors the first time. She knows what he´s planning to do.

The thing is, she can´t really hates him for it. He´s desperate and she can understand that, can even relates to it. He´s not the only one trying to get his family back.

(If she´s not careful, she may end up like him after all.)

"I could help you. I could _get it to work_."

And she really could. After the curse was broken, Jefferson visited her on the station. He wanted to thank her and also to say sorry. He was sorry not only for the drugging and kidnapping, but also for believing Regina again and getting that poisoned apple for her.

This is how she found out that she made the hat work (and that´s how she´s sure she can make it work a second time, even if she doesn´t know how). Also, this is how she knows that Jefferson won´t care enough to make questions, because if he was desperate enough to believe even in the Evil Queen a second time, he will believe in her.

"But?" The Hatter´s eyes are narrowed; even then she can still see the small trace of hope in them.

"I need you to help me with something."

\-/

She bit her lip while she concentrated. She can do this; of course she can do this. It´s no biggie and, after all, she´s Emma Swan, she broke a 28 years old curse before and killed a dragon. This should be easy.

The dart flews fast, speeding towards its mark and Emma watches as it bounces into the floor.

Maybe not so easy then. Maybe just a little bit harder than she thought.

A deep chuckle makes her turn around. The sheriff is laughing openly, his hands on his knees, and even if the sight warms her heart, and the sound of his laughter makes her heart beats faster, she still feels like strangling the man.

"I´m sorry it´s just that…" It seems like Graham has recognized the danger since he tries to apologize, it also seems like he´s not very afraid of her since he can´t stop laughing. "Your face… You looked so concentrated and so sure that it…that it would hit the mark."

"Yeah, well, you promised that you would teach me, so who´s on fault here, uh?" Emma´s hands are on her hips and she looks like a mix between frustration and embarrassment.

"Did I?" Graham straights himself and smiles at her. "I don´t remember that."

And of course he doesn´t. Because it wasn´t him that promised, well it _was_ him, but it was_ before_, during a time that the smiling man in front of her don´t remember. A few days before she would catch him sneaking out of Regina´s house, to be more precise. She would be playing throwing darts with him (and losing spectacularly) while they drink beer, and he would end up promising to teach her when she has less alcohol on her system.

He would break his promise some time later and she would never try to throw darts again. At least, until she somehow travel to the past and end up being his deputy again.

"Hey, are you ok?" His voice, sounding concerned, reaches her ears and stops her train of thought.

Even if she breaks the curse and keeps him alive, these moments are lost forever, because he´ll never remember them.

"Yeah, Yeah I am."

From the way her boss is looking at her, it´s pretty clear that she wasn´t very convincing in reassuring him.

"Well, if you do want I can teach you how to play darts." Graham goes and takes the fallen dart from the floor. "Who knows? Maybe next time you even manage to actually hit the target."

"I know that I said that you should work on your jokes, sheriff, but I don´t see any improvements." Emma´s arms are crossed and her face shows her lack of amusement.

The sheriff is still smiling when he approaches Emma and puts his hands on her shoulders, gently moving her, so her back end up resting on his chest.

"What are you doing?" The blonde´s voice is low and raspy.

"You want to learn how to play darts, right?" His voice is way too close to her ear, and she has to suppress the shivers that it causes.

There´s a small pause while he waits for her response. The thing is, his close proximity is doing no good to her mental faculties and all she can manage to do is nod.

"Well, no time like the present." His accent is even more notable and it has the same effect as always on Emma.

"Ok, you throw with your right hand, so your right foot needs to be perpendicular with an imaginable line. And your left foot needs to be in a location that you can distribute your weight easily."

"I´m sorry, but are you still speaking English?"

His chuckle sounds to close and Emma has to bit her lip. Somehow she never imagined that throwing darts could be that….sexy. Or maybe it´s just Graham. She has the distinctive impression that if it was Ruby or David teaching her, she wouldn´t be feeling like that.

(It is just Graham)

"Right." He takes his hands away from her shoulders, and for a moment she misses it more than she probably should. That is, until he leans down a little and his hand go to her right leg, effortless moving her feet in the right position. "Like that. See?"

"Uh huh."

"Stand up straight, shoulders back." Graham´s hands are lightly holding her shoulders again. Emma almost let a content sigh at the movement. Almost. "And in line with the center of the board."

"So, your grip shouldn´t be too tight or too loosely either. And it´s better if you hold the dart with three fingers." The sheriff´s hand adjusts the position of Emma´s fingers on the dart. Like always happen when their hands touch, there are sparks and the blonde takes a deep breath.

"Now aim for the board." Suddenly, Graham´s check is resting against her and even if they are just playing darts, she´s pretty positive that the scene wouldn´t be classified PG anymore.

Dear God, who knew that learning how to play darts, would end up being one of the most erotic moments in all of her life?

Jesus Christ.

Graham´s hand is still holding her right one, his cheek still pressed again her, his breath temptingly close and his left hand is lightly grazing her waist. Emma´s sure if she doesn´t throw the dart now, she is going to either explode or turn around and literally jump on her boss.

"So, what´s next?" She wants to cringe at how her voice sounded. There goes her hope of the sheriff not noticing the effect he has on her.

"You throw."

She throws the dart just as he let go of her hand. They both watch as it flew in the air and land softly on the board.

Sure, it wasn´t on the center, to be honest it looks like she almost didn´t manage to hit the board at all, but who cares? Certainly not Emma, if the smile on her face is any indication.

"I did it. Did you see it?" The deputy´s excited voice and the way her hand, instinctively it seems, grab Graham´s arm, is enough to make the sheriff smile.

"Yes, Yes I did." He leans back a little, which means that his cheek is not resting on hers anymore, his grip tightens on her waist and his voice is closer to her ear when he speaks again. "Good job, Deputy."

How long they would stay like that no one knows, because at this moment the sheriff´s gaze landed on his deputy´s exposed arms.

"Emma." Graham´s tight voice captures very quickly her attention. "What the hell happened?"

The blonde turns around, her hand still resting on his arm.

"What do you mean?"

Graham´s jaw is clenched, his eyes stormy and she thinks that she has never see him like this before. The closer she has come was weeks ago, when they both broke in the hospital searching for a videotape. Emma has never understood, not really, how Regina could ever think that the dorky sheriff was the perfect man to kill Snow White.

(She thinks she understand better now)

"Your arms. What happened?"

She follows his meaningful gaze and stares at her arms. Her bruised arms.

Oh, hell.

Did Jefferson really need to grip her so hard? And why didn´t she noticed it sooner?

"Emma." Graham´s voice is still tight, and as much as a part of Emma loves the fact that he´s so concerned about her (this has to mean that he _cares_ about her, may even have _romantic feelings_ for her), another part of her wants him to just let go.

"It is nothing." The blonde pass from him, walking in the direction of her desk. "I haven´t even noticed."

She pauses behind her desk, makes a conscious effort to not cross her arms, and grabs a file. The sheriff is walking on her direction, jaw still clenched, eyes still stormy.

"It doesn´t look like nothing."

She sighs. Really, she should know that he wouldn´t let go that easily.

"I probably just hit my arm on the kitchen table or something."

"Both?" One of his eyebrows is up, and she knows him enough to gather that he´s not amused.

"I am really clumsy." There´s a pause. "Look, can we just go back to work? I was meaning to ask if you already got the results from the analysis of the tape."

This is not a lie. She has been meaning to ask him that, quite actually she only threw the dart, which manages to impressively hit the floor, because she was bored waiting for her boss´s return from saving a cat from a tree (such are the perils of a town like Storybrooke.). Emma has wondered what the specialists from Portland managed to discover.

For a long while, Graham just looks at her, and the blonde has to resist the urge to shiver. Even if she will never admit, not even to herself, the reason why the she feels so cold so suddenly is because she misses his warmth. Not only the warmth of his body, but the ever present warmth on his eyes as well.

_Please_, she wants to say, _Please, Graham. Just go with me. I don´t want you to know what I´m planning. I don´t want to risk you getting hurt._

"You would tell me if you´re in trouble?"

"I…" Emma bits her lip. She´s not in trouble, per see, at least not yet. But she´ll be in deep trouble later, she´s sure of it. She also knows that the sheriff won´t let this go, unless she promises him this. And she doesn´t want to lie to him. "I promise I´ll tell you."

Graham gives a barely imperceptible nod and closes his eyes briefly. When he opens again, his jaw is not clenched and even if his eyes are not as warm as before, they are not stormy either.

"Well, it appears that David did spoke in his sleep. He just never spoke Kathryn´s name, someone doctorate the tape so it looked like he did."

Emma smiles gracefully at Graham while putting the file back to her desk. She then let out a deep breath.

"So what was he saying?"

"Snow."

Of course.

"Besides that, that doesn´t give us much, except perhaps, that he loves snow and his favorite season must be winter…" She smirks listening to Graham´s reasoning. She doesn´t know what is her father´s favorite season, but he definitely loves snow. "…he only said another phrase a couple of times, that doesn´t seem to clarify much either."

"What did he said?" Emma´s brow is furrowed. Did he say anything that could be linked to the Enchanted Forest? Maybe talked about Red, the dwarves or magic?

"Find us."

\-/

"So, how did your meeting with the Mad Hatter go?"

They´re at the castle again. It´s their unofficial meeting point, where they go to talk about Operation Cobra, their own little corner in this cursed town. Emma loves these moments. Not only she gets to spend time with Henry, just the two of them, but it´s also the one time where she doesn´t need to think so careful about what she says since her son knows about her future knowledge.

Of course, there are times when she needs to think about what she´s going to say anyway. Now is a very good example.

"It went well." No talking about the bruises on her arms that freaked out Graham, and that are now covered in her trustful red leather jacket. "He agreed to help me getting Belle to Gold, as long as I make his hat."

"But if you´re gonna break the curse, why does he need the hat?" Henry´s confusion is quite clear on his face and in his voice.

"I don´t know." She does know. Jefferson wants to have a plan B since she has no idea how to break the curse without endangering Henry. The kid thinks that it was killing the dragon with her father´s sword that broke the curse, Emma doesn´t really wants to clarify things for him. "But he _is_ the Mad Hatter after all."

Henry´s laugh sounds like music to her ears. It may be just her impression, but it seems like he´s laughing much more this second time around. Not only that, but he smiles more and seems more…well, carefree she supposes. It´s like having Emma believing in him, knowing that the curse can definitely be broken and that it really does exist, end up lifting an incredible heavy burden from his shoulders.

It makes Emma want to cry, but it also makes her wanting to kick Regina´s ass so freaking much.

A sound behind them, makes they turn around and look into a very strange pair of eyes coming from the brushes. One eye is blue and the other one is red.

"Hey there." Emma smiles at Graham´s wolf while the animal languidly walks in their direction. "The perimeter is safe then?"

The wolf barks once and wags his tail, in a gesture that the blonde learned to indentify as yes. Henry is already getting out of the castle and walking to the wolf in order to pet him.

And that´s the reason why they can talk so freely while in the castle. At the beginning, Emma was wary of talking with her son in the castle, the memory of the photos that Sydney took of her and Henry too fresh on her mind. But the kid was really attached to the place, and the day after taking Graham´s heart from the vault they found the sheriff´s wolf brother. It didn´t took long for them to figure out, that while they talked the wolf was circulating the area looking for any potential danger.

If Sydney ever try to take these pictures like before, he´s in for a very nasty surprise. One that will teach him to not even try to do that ever again.

"Hey, miss us, boy?" Henry cringes while patting the wolf and turns to look at his mother, who is coming into their direction to greet properly the animal too. "We really need to give him a name."

"He probably already has one, we just don´t know it yet." Emma´s smiling at the picture in front of her. There is her kid crouching down in order to scuff the wolf´s belly, and there is said wolf with his tongue out, exposed belly and wagging tail laid down on the ground.

"If Graham remembered he could told us." He sighs dramatically. "How did you manage to break his curse anyway?"

Emma is petting the wolf behind his ears that has sit up straight when he noticed her approach, when she hears the question and her hand freezes for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you told me that the reason that…that the Queen killed him was because he was starting to remember." Henry stands up and gives his mother a very piercing stare. "So, what did you do to make him start remember?"

Oh, boy.

Sure, she have realized that Henry would question how the sheriff started remembering his other life, she just thought (more like wished really) that it would take him longer to ask her about that.

"Well, I´m not sure exactly…" There is not a lie. Emma has a hunch, a very probable hunch true, but a hunch nonetheless. It´s not like she could go to Rumpelstiltskin and ask him what managed to break Graham´s curse, right? "But I think it could be because I…kissed him."

"You kissed Graham?" Henry scrunches his face.

"Actually, he kissed me first when we were fighting on the street. _Then_, I kissed him at the station after we kind of made up, I guess."

"So, your kisses were what broke the curse?"

"Look, I know that it sounds a little crazy." The blonde stops petting the wolf and turns to face her son. "But after I kissed him, he looked at me and he said 'I remember' and 'Thank you' and he looked so…happy."

It was weird. No one, not even Neal, had looked at Emma the same way that Graham did that night. Happy can´t even exactly describe how he looked in that moment. He looked…found is one word that comes to her mind, followed very close by loved.

Sometimes she wondered what he saw in her at that moment too. Emma herself can hardly recur all that she was feeling at the time. Most of her memory of that night was tainted with what happened after, the all consuming numbness and that hopeless sensation that appeared to crush her heart in the most painful way.

From the little she can remember though, those few precious minutes, when Graham was still oh so alive and real, are some of the happiest moments of her entire life.

"Well, you two do have a special connection." Her son´s voice interrupts her musings.

"What do you mean?"

"You owe him your life since he spared Snow White and helped Charming." Graham´s wolf appear to have sensed that the two humans are having an important conversation, he lay down on the ground again and close his eyes. Henry pats his head twice. "And when the curse is broken, you will have saved his life as well, by breaking the curse and by restoring him his heart."

"I…haven´t thought about that way before."

It almost looks like a story from Henry´s book. A fairytale. The Huntsman end up assuring the life of the princess who will give his heart back.

Full circle.

"And there´s the fact that True Love´s kiss can break any curse."

Wait, what?

"What?"

"True Love´s kiss. You know, the reason why Graham´s curse was broken?" Henry appears genuinely confused by his mother.

"Whoa, kid. I think you far from the truth here."

True Love´s kiss.

True Love´s kiss?

_No way_.

(People like her don´t find their true love.)

"Really? Then what do you think broke his curse?" His arms are crossed, one of his eyebrows are up, and he looks like he´s merely amusing her.

"Well, I´m the Savior, right? That´s probably why." Even as she says, it doesn´t sound that believable to her. "I´m the product of True Love. I have magic. That´s why."

"Then all you needed to do was kiss everyone in town for the curse to break."

Emma huffs, but the kid only smirks at her, calm at the knowledge that he is right. And his mother is in denial.

"Ok, look, Mary Margaret and David kissed before and nothing happened, ok? They kissed, but they continued cursed till I broke the curse."

She may have admitted to herself that she loves Graham, that she´ll do anything for him and that she´ll keep him alive this time at all costs. She may have admitted that if he wants she´ll start a relationship with him, without any second guesses or lingering doubts. But admit that the sheriff is her True Love? That it´s different.

Emma has barely acknowledged that True Love does exist; something that she never believed in, never thought it would be in the cards for her. Besides, according to Gold, True Love is something so rare and precious that very few people have ever had it.

(How can she be someone´s True Love?)

"But grandma and grandpa didn´t remembered each other. They were cursed, that´s why it didn´t work with them."

The blonde opens her mouth to rebut, to say something, but nothing comes to her mind. She closes her eyes to stop the sting of tears that wants to come (she will not cry in front of her son) and takes a deep breath. When she opens her eyes again, Henry is looking at her with a solemn expression on his face.

"I´ve been watching you two, you know? You _love _Graham and he loves _you_. He´s your True Love." He then takes a few steps and hugs Emma. "Don´t worry Mom, you´ll save him and break the curse and we´ll all live happily ever after."

Emma closes her eyes, tears finally streaming down because of what Henry said.

(It´s the first time since she travelled back that he calls her Mom.)

Happily ever after.

She wants to laugh, because that had always sounded so unrealistic to her, even when she was a little girl.

You can´t live happily ever after, but you can try to and maybe, just maybe, that´ll be enough. You won´t be happy all the time, but the times that you´ll do will be more than worth.

Happiness is not a station, but a way of travelling, right?

"God, I hope so, kid." She hugs her son just as fiercely when she feels dampness on her hand. It´s Graham´s wolf. She smiles and extends an arm so she´s hugging him too. "I really hope so."

\-/

**A/N: So, finally the fourth chapter is here, what did you guys thought? Like I said, this one end up being longer and it has more Gremma than the usual too. I would really love to hear your opinions on the chapter, how the story is progressing, if Jefferson is in character and any grammar mistakes I managed to make. Also, I´ve decided to edit the chapters as I post, and when I finish I will edit the others 3 chapters and the prologue. Again, English is not my mother language so if you see any mistakes please let me know. And thank you to everyone who wished me good luck on my finals, everything end up ok in the end, but I really appreciated the wishes.**

**On another note, I guess I can say that you all can expect an update in 2 to 3 months. School is starting again on Monday and I´m having some health problems. I´ve been doing a lot of exams lately (I´ve never done so much exams in so short time in my entire life), but there´s still some other exams to make so I can found out what´s wrong with me.**

**And sorry for the long author´s notes.**


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